Witnesses Andrew ChampDoran
& John Perry, outside the
ethics board hearing room
KINGSTON – Officially, nobody is allowed to reveal what transpired at Tuesday night’s closed door hearing of the City of Kingston Board of Ethics. The controversy over the Pike Plan, an ongoing project which defined the architectural character of a portion Wall Street in the uptown business district, was carried over from a previous meeting held on September 2, also confidential.
The door of the City Hall Conference Room was locked for three hours. Several
witnesses were called, including City Council President James Noble, Pike
Plan Commission Chairman John Perry, and Uptown resident Andrew Champ-Doran.
While others came and left, Third Ward Alderman Brad Will remained inside the entire time, represented by Eric Naiburg, a Suffolk County criminal defense attorney. Will refused comment and attempted to shield his face from being photographed.
Will was one of the architects retained in 2009 to design renovations to the Pike Plan area.
The city Ethics Board, all mayoral appointees, was represented by attorney Michael Sussman.
Chairwoman Jean Jacobs said she was prevented from discussing the case until the matter is fully disposed.
City Corporation Counsel Andrew Zweben remained outside, but went into the meeting briefly. He stated that defects in the Pike Plan reconstruction of 2011 will result in litigation against responsible parties.
Dominic Vannacore, an Uptown cafe owner and Pike Plan commissioner, said
that both the commission and Champ-Doran filed an ethics complaint against
Alderman Will, for failing to recuse himself from city council deliberations
on the issue. Those specific allegations were also reported in the Kingston
Times, a local weekly newspaper, back in April.
www.kingstonx.com/2015/04/10/pike-plan-panel-seeks-to-get-alderman-to-abstain-from-canopy-votes/
Noble said the city should provide Will with legal counsel.
“You pay a guy $8,000 [annual salary], and then he speaks on something that he thinks he knows about, and he’s going to get sued or whatever, and he’s got to go and hire an outside attorney.” Noble said. “I think the city should provide him an attorney. Now I’m going to have to rethink it, tell all my guys, if you think there’s even a hint of a possibility, to recuse themselves. “We never did that. They battle in there every single day; they don’t care about that, if they’re not fighting, they’re not happy.”
