Fayette County commissioners-elect Linda Wells and Greg Dunn aren't waiting until they are sworn into office this January to start fulfilling campaign promises.

The two are working now to prepare proposed ordinances on ethics and impact fees to present soon after they take office.

"We're in the research mode right now," said Dunn, who is studying ethics ordinances from other areas and working on a draft to present in January.

"I hope to have at least a draft proposal ready before the end of January," said Wells, who has taken on the task of drawing up an impact fee ordinance.

Dunn stressed that the newly elected pair are not expecting to "railroad" their proposals through the Board of Commissioners. "You can't do anything without a consensus, and we'll certainly be presenting drafts to the commissioners and the county attorney," he said. "We're just trying to do things the way we said we would when we were on the campaign trail," he added.

He envisions an ethics ordinance that is more specific than the county's current ordinance, Dunn said.

"We're just going to try to tighten it up. Where the current one says you should endeavor to do this or that, we're putting words in like 'You will.' And it will contain procedures for reporting offenses... things like that," he said.

Commissioners will be required to disclose relationships with anyone bringing business before the county's governing body if they adopt his proposal, Dunn said, including "if your boss comes in, or your wife's boss, direct family relationships, partnerships, any kind of financial relationship..."

Certain types of relationship will require disclosure, while others will require abstention from voting, Dunn said.

"I anticipate having a draft within a week or two, but can't do anything with it until I'm sworn in," Dunn said. Then, he can get input from the county attorney and other commissioners and prepare a final draft for adoption, he added.

"My target is to have it on the books and be operating under the new code by February," he said.

Wells is studying the concept of impact fees money paid by developers to cover the impact of their projects on local roads and other infrastructure, and said charging such fees is easier said than done.

"There are very specific guidelines as to how those [funds] are supposed to be used," she said, adding that she has been gathering information on how other counties and cities deal with the issue.

The fees must be used in the immediate geographical area to address specific needs created by the development itself.

High on that list of needs is road improvements, Wells said, but federal air quality standards are making it difficult for governments to accomplish the needed projects, regardless of need, she added. "We can look at it and say this is what we meant to do, but do we have the latitude to do it?" she said.

In the year 2000, counties and cities may have to start building sewer plants to treat storm water runoff from new development, and impact fees might be directed toward that effort, Wells added. "If we have to start treating that storm water runoff, it blows my mind to think of the potential cost," she said.

Wells said she hopes to have a draft ready by the end of January, but it may take some time to polish the ordinance and get it adopted.

County Commissioner-elect Linda Wells wants to keep constantly in touch with neighborhood organizations and others, she said, adding she plans to start an organization known as the Neighborhood Action Group, NAG for short.

"I'll solicit the different neighborhood associations and groups and come to their meetings to talk about their concerns from their backyard perspective," said Wells.

She also plans to start a newsletter on the Internet, initially using her campaign address, votelinda@aol.com.

"It's important for the citizens to hear from elected officials other than when they want something or when they're running for office," she said.