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Ethics error was just a mistake Councilman likely to be fined By Chris Bristol and JESSICA SMITH A Medford city councilman says he never would have used a city-owned laptop computer for personal business if he had known that doing so violated state ethics law. "I was shocked when this came to me," Matt Hart said Thursday. "If I thought it was an ethics violation, I wouldn�t have done it. I was clueless." The Oregon Government Standards and Practices Commission meets today in Salem to decide whether to punish Hart. Ethics staff have recommended only a fine, concluding the violation was minor. Meanwhile, the ethics commission also will consider ethics complaints against two Medford airport supervisors. Staff investigators have recommended dismissal of a complaint against Office Supervisor Craig Baldwin, who was accused of having his home air-conditioning unit fixed by an airport maintenance employee. At the same time, ethics staff have recommended possible sanctions against Operations Supervisor Robert Russell, who was accused of using limited hangar space for storage of a boat and other personal belongings. The case against airport Director Bern Case has been postponed until the commission�s next meeting in July. Ethics staff said they need more time to investigate claims that Case helped his wife run an aviation-related business on county time. In a report last week, ethics investigators concluded the Hart violation was "somewhat" minor and recommended only a fine. Hart could ask for a contested hearing if he disagrees; on Thursday he said he won�t. According to the report, Hart stored 13 pages of personal "documents" on a surplus city-owned laptop that he had obtained primarily for city-related business. Because the laptop had no modem, Hart returned it to the city and requested a modem upgrade so he could go on-line, the report said. City staff then saw the documents and notified Medford police, who referred the matter to the commission. Hart told investigators he would have used the laptop for both city and personal use online if the computer had the capability. He said he has publicly advocated that council members should be issued laptops for out-of-town use, such as attending a conference, and that nobody ever warned him of the ethical conflict. The report noted that Hart apparently gained no financial benefit from his use of the laptop. Hart said Thursday that even though he now understands why his actions violated ethics law � the general public doesn�t have access to city-owned computers � he was unaware he was breaking the rules at the time. "I was just goofing around, trying to learn to use it," he said. It�s unclear exactly what the documents were. According to the ethics report, Hart told investigators the documents were import/export information about German bonds. Thursday he said the documents were for his landscaping business. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA