With a decision looming about the multi-million dollar plan to build a new clubhouse at Beaver Meadow Golf Course, an ethics complaint about a committee that helps govern the city-owned facility has fallen into the lap of the Concord City Council.

Normally, complaints are run through Concord’s Board of Ethics, and the Council takes action based on their recommendation. But, after the ethics board ran out the clock, what happens now is in uncharted territory.

The complaint, filed by a vocal critic of the clubhouse project and of the course’s management in general, takes issue with members of the Golf Course Advisory Committee designated as “general public” representatives having course memberships. The committee has separate seats for “general public” and “season user.” The bylaws wouldn’t be so specific if they were interchangeable, the complaint argues.

Since the vast majority of the committee are course members, the voice of the general public has been suppressed, Marcy Charette argued in her complaint.

She believes members violated the city’s ethics rules by accepting their positions. She also asked that their endorsement of the city’s $8 million clubhouse plan be tossed, both because non-golfers lacked sufficient voice in the process and because she sees all course users on the committee as having a conflict of interest in the clubhouse vote. Her complaint named nearly the entire committee — including Ward 3 City Councilor Jennifer Kretovic and excluding At-large City Councilor Nathan Fennessy.

Some of those named in the complaint have objected to its accusations. They are taxpayers as well as golfers, they stated, and still capable of representing residents broadly. Some noted that the onus was on city councilors and the mayor who approved and nominated them. One, Roger Jobin, stated that he is not, in fact, a course member and criticized Charette for trying “to throw sand in the gears of progress.”

The ethics board is required to take up complaints within 45 days. A meeting was scheduled for this past Wednesday, 43 days after the board received the complaint. It was then canceled: two members of the ethics board recused themselves and a third is out of state, meaning there wasn’t a quorum to weigh the issue. Having missed the deadline, it gets passed to top city leaders, who are themselves debating the clubhouse expense.

“There are no rules or ordinances governing the City Council’s review of an ethics complaint,” City Solicitor Danielle Pacik notes in a report. The ethics boards’ required process doesn’t apply to them.

At Monday’s council meeting, councilors could vote to dismiss the complaint outright, dive into its substance or schedule a hearing for another time.

They also could send it back to the ethics board. That’s what Mayor Byron Champlin will ask councilors to do, he told the Monitor.

The board is the appropriate arena for the dispute to be examined, he said. If they do pass it back, the timeline for review would be up to the council, according to Pacik.

The ethics board recusals came from Chair John Sullivan, because he is a business associate of Fennessy, and James Rosenberg, who holds a Beaver Meadow membership, Pacik said in an email to the Monitor.

Champlin has rejected calls to put the clubhouse project on hold – which is up for debate in the city budget this year – despite the complaint.

Councilors will also vote on a new appointment to the Golf Course Advisory Board. In a letter of interest, nominee Craig Savage states that he is not and has no intention of becoming a member of the golf course.

Other agenda items include:

■Road improvements on Broadway studied after multiple cars crashed into a South End home.

■A priority list for infrastructure projects

■An appointment to the homelessness steering committee

■Funding for a manager to lead the city’s efforts to reduce homelessness.

■Small increases to city tax credits for seniors and veterans.

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com. You can subscribe to her Concord newsletter The City Beat at concordmonitor.com.