We seek advice from someone with more wisdom and experience. I mentioned this difference to a lawyer friend. You are trying to figure out what you should do. A lawyer is trying to figure out what he can do. Once City Council passed a code of ethics, it triggered a tendency to deal with ethics in a lawyerly manner.
Council members consult the city attorney on ethical questions.
He tells them what they can do. They then profess that anything the lawyer says they can do must be all right. As state Rep. Bill Siebert found out, voters have a different standard. He was trounced after considerable publicity regarding his work as a paid lobbyist at City Hall. The lawyers told him he could do it.