Will
Champ-Doran
KINGSTON – Brad Will, Kingston’s Third Ward alderman, might
meet the Board of Ethics once again. He was found guilty of repeated
violations in a report filed on Oct. 9, and fined $1,000 with censure,
for conflict of interest involving the Pike Plan scandal.
Now city officials are steaming mad, and openly preparing to accuse
him of further conflict, for allegedly representing a client before
the planning board on October 13, discussing site plan changes for the
new Irish Cultural Center at 32 Abeel Street. Alderman Will also serves
as the planning board’s liaison to the city common council.
The official source of the new allegation is an abstract of the October
13 minutes, prepared this week by the planning board clerk. Mayor Shayne
Gallo pulled no punches in an interview conducted on Sunday afternoon
during the Burning of Kingston, where he roasted the embattled alderman.
“Mr. Will doesn’t get it,” said Gallo. “Unfortunately
he’s consistently lacking transparency and veracity, and disregarding
the law, rising above the law,” Gallo said.
“Alderman Will should know that the plain meaning of the [ethics]
law provides that, in fact, as a liaison member from the city council
to any existing city board, you can’t represent anyone before
that board. To me, it’s a no-brainer,” Gallo said.
The mayor said for Will, after on instance, to engage in the same pattern
of behavior, “blatantly and knowingly disregarding the ethics
law, is just a sad commentary on the kind of government we have in this
city. It’s really unacceptable,” Gallo said.
Andrew Champ-Doran, Brad Will’s Independence Party opponent in
November’s election, agrees. It was Champ-Doran who originally
filed the first set of ethics charges against Will last January. Those
charges were later levied verbatim by the Pike Plan Commission.
“My alderman, my representative in City Hall was breaking the
law. We want to make him stop breaking the law,” Champ-Doran said,
claiming his motives weren’t political.
During the secretive ethics board proceedings throughout September,
Will refused to testify under oath, but stated through his defense attorney
ignorance regarding his conflict restrictions. Champ-Duran countered
that assertion by disclosing a January 2014 letter by Will, attempting
unsuccessfully to levy similar ethics charges against Mayor Gallo.
“It’s clear from his letter to Jim Noble that
Brad Will knows the law. He’s very specific in his letter; he takes
a lot of time, sort of deconstructing the law and looking at it. He has
a three-page addendum to his letter, describing more in depth about conflict
of interest,” Champ-Doran noted.
“I believe they gave him a great deal of leeway. Brad Will cost
the city something in the neighborhood of six or seven thousand dollars,
in lawyer fees and transcription fees. Only paying back a thousand dollars
to the city is, I think, a little light,” Champ-Doran added.
Alderman Will was unavailable for comment over the weekend. Messages were
left on his voice mail. Previously he refused comment on the matter of
ethics on several other occasions.
