No conflict of interest for engineering firm, Haysville City Council majority says
Six of seven Haysville City Council members said Monday that it is not a conflict of interest for Professional Engineering Consultants (PEC) to review plats for the city that were designed by the firm.
The seventh council member, Eric Myers, brought up concerns in January and since then about the engineering contract with PEC, citing citing city code 1-111. Myers has been a council member since December 2025.
The city’s code provides guidelines for all “city employees, contract employees, appointed officials and elected officials” when “conducting business of the city.” Employees or officials who have “substantial interest” in a business handling are prohibited from participating, the code reads.
Haysville contracts PEC to advise the city on engineering concerns, including to review plats submitted to the city, some of which were designed by the engineering firm.
“We should ensure these decisions are not made by people with (a) conflict of interest. Allowing conflicts like this will continue to hurt the trust of the people,” Myers said at Monday’s meeting.
In May, City Attorney Josh Pollak’s legal opinion concluded that the city’s code did not apply to PEC, because “neither the individuals reviewing plats nor the engineering firm for which they work are employees or public officials for the City.” Myers then moved to amend the code to have the wording “retained professionals” in order for it to include PEC engineers. After concerns over what burden that would be on staff, City Administrator Will Black put together a memo that was attached to Monday’s council meeting agenda, saying that depending on how the wording was interpreted, it could “create a significant administrative burden.”
Myers shared with the council that he decided not to pursue his previous motion to amend the code of ethics and instead voted for a yes or no vote for the council to share if they believed the current engineering contract was a conflict of interest.
“It is a conflict of interest without debate. The difference is our code, as written, allows it,” Myers said. “If you’re OK with it, then whatever, we’ll move on with life. If you’re not OK with it, as I’m not OK with it, then we can work on trying to find a solution to fix it.”
Every council member except Myers voted “no,” meaning they did not have an issue with the code of ethics and PEC’s role in the city as it was.
“Ultimately, house rules, and if the majority of the council does not have an issue allowing this conflict of interest to continue, we can move on from this topic,” Myers said.
PEC’s chief marketing officer, Christina Beaird, previously told The Eagle that the firm is “committed to upholding ethical standards and maintaining public trust.”
“These principles are fundamental to professional engineering licensure and core to who we are as a company,” Beaird said.
