Kingston Agrees to Repay Dallas City Hall $8k for Missing Meetings, Averting Ethics Hearing

Dallas City Council member Philip Kingston has agreed to repay the city more than $8,000 for missing too many meetings in one year, according to documents filed with the city secretary's office.Kingston's agreement to pay the money by March 31, 2019, resolves an ethics complaint against him before a panel could review it. An anonymous caller on the city's waste, fraud and abuse hotline had complained that Kingston hadn't repaid the money yet, prompting City Auditor Craig Kinton to file the complaint.A preliminary Ethics Advisory Commission hearing on the matter was scheduled for Monday, but Kinton withdrew his complaint this week. Kingston did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday.Kingston just went through an ethics saga over a few seconds of video. The Ethics Advisory Commission recently ruled that Kingston committed an ethics violation because he filmed a short ad for a fundraiser while behind his desk in his City Hall office. Kingston and his lawyer initially said the ethics rules, which the council member had voted for months earlier, were too vague and potentially unconstitutional.  Continue reading...