The Board of Ethics held its third meeting on Tuesday evening, December 14th at Town Hall. In attendance were Jim Breig, Jack Conway, Joseph Slater and Dave Youmans. One member of the public attended.
The primary topic of discussion was a draft document outlining the internal rules and regulations of the Board itself. The document lays out the procedures we will use to process complaints filed by residents and advisory opinions requested by town officials and employees.
Resident complaints must be filed in written form and must be notarized. Although we are still in the early stages of the discussion on this, confidentiality will be granted in special cases but no anonymous complaints will be accepted. Once a complaint is received the Board will first make a determination of whether there is cause to proceed or not. If there is cause, we will follow a two-step investigation process.
The first step will consist of a Board of Ethics review consisting mainly of taking statements from the parties involved. If at the end of this stage we can determine that no violation of the Code of Ethics has occurred the complaint will be dismissed.
If this review yields the need for information we will go to the next stage which is a public hearing of the case. This will not be a public hearing in the sense that anyone can come and add their opinion. It will be a hearing in public at which the complainant and the accused can bring witnesses and cross-examine one another's statements. They will each have the right to bring an attorney to this hearing if they feel it is in their best interest.
After this hearing, the Board of Ethics will make a recommendation to the Town Board as to whether a violation of the Code of Ethics has been violated. The Board of Ethics is an advisory board and any actions taken pursuant to our deliberations must be taken by the Town Board.
Everything I have just described here is in draft form and has not been finalized.
We still have a great deal of work to do before we sign off on the process but this is our thinking at the present time.
The next step for the Board of Ethics is to begin the process of drafting a Code of Ethics. We encourage everyone to attend our meetings and participate in that discussion.
We will announce the date of our January meeting as soon as it is scheduled.
Posted at the request of BOE Member Jack Conway
Have you asked what other municipalities do in terms of process in implementing these things?
ReplyDeleteSeems to me that you'd want to have the Code in place before you created the process for addressing and implementing it. Will all the Code's standards require "notarized accusations?" Seems like the cart is in front of the horse.
ReplyDeleteWe are continuing to research the processes used by other municipalities. There is a wide range of codes and practices employed by other towns and we are trying to find the right balance for East Greenbush.
ReplyDeleteIt may seem like the cart has been put before the horse, but we still don't have a full board which we feel is essential in drafting the Code. Rather than wait until the full board has been constituted, a process that should be completed at the January Town Board meeting, we have busied ourselves with working on the internal procedures. Once we have a draft of the internal procedures we will concentrate on drafting the Code. After the Code is finished, the procedures will be reviewed to ensure they are consistent with the Code. I'm not sure I understand the comment about 'notarized accusations.'
Perhaps I misunderstand the following quotation from the original post:
ReplyDelete"Resident complaints must be filed in written form and must be notarized."
You have the quote right but I was wondering if you disagreed with the passage and feel there should be anonymous complaints. I am only speaking for myself here and not the Board of Ethics, but my thinking is that the important issue in a sensitive case is confidentiality rather than anonymity. The jobs and public reputations of town employees and officials can be affected by complaints to the BOE and it would be irresponsible to allow anonymous complaints. In cases where whistleblower protection is required, the BOE must be able to guarantee confidentiality to the person who files the complaint. That might mean that the public hearing would be held in executive session, and only members of the BOE would know the identity of the complainant but to open the door to anonymous complaints risks turning the Board of Ethics into a political free-for-all filled with half-baked assertions and unsubstantiated innuendo. We still have a lot of details to work out so if you disagree with what I have written here, please let me know your thinking. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteYou're heavy on the half-baked assertions and unsubstantiated innuendo. Let's not forget the retribution that happens around here. Sounds like a setup for the establishment. And you don't think you're in a political free for all already?
ReplyDeleteThe town had a company make a town policy handbook. Would that be any use to your ethics board?Maybe get the name of the company.
ReplyDeleteSeeing some baseless statements being made anonymously on the blogs, I think Jack states a valid concern and is taking a prudent approach. Facing one's accuser is critical to due process.
ReplyDeletePete Stenson
Heavy on the half-baked assertions and unsubtantiated innuendo is a very accurate statement.
ReplyDeleteI , as well as Jack , am very wary of people looking to do nothing but embarass public officials or Town Employees simply because they could!
I forsee ALOT of unsubstantiated and bogus claims from disgruntled people-( who shall remain nameless even though I'm very tempted !) . The Ethics Board must remain neutral yet they need a avenue to investigate fully whatever complaint that is brought to their attention - something that will not be easy with the attitude of some people in this Town !
My very best wishes to Jack and Co. as they progress forward - hopefully unencombered by political tom-foolery .