The Floyd County Commission is looking into the process of becoming a certified “County of Ethics.”

The Georgia Municipal Association has opened its City of Ethics program to counties and the Rome City Commission has offered to sponsor the county board.

Click to see a GMA sample ethics ordinance.

“Anything we can do to improve transparency and provide confidence is a good thing,” said County Commissioner Chad Whitefield said.

Rome became a City of Ethics in 2000 and is preparing to be recertified in June.

Since the voluntary program was created 11 years ago, 211 of Georgia’s 535 cities have been certified to use the “City of Ethics” logo. Last month, Paulding County became the first county to complete the process.

Rome Mayor Wright Bagby Jr. said he’d like Floyd County to be the second.

“It’s important for any body to be recognized for having ethical standards, and I believe our county does,” he said.

To earn the designation, a government must adopt a resolution establishing principles of conduct for elected officials. It also must enact an ethics ordinance that meets standards set by the GMA board.

In addition to listing permitted and unpermitted activities, the ordinance must set out a procedure for addressing ethics complaints filed against elected officials and establish punishments for violations.

County Commissioners are expected to discuss the issue at their next meeting. At present, the county’s code of ethics and conduct applies only to employees.

The board’s regular Feb. 9 session has been rescheduled to Feb. 12 because of a conflict with the Association County Commissioners of Georgia annual legislative conference in Atlanta.