Nance: “We’d like to see
those minutes …”
KINGSTON – The newly revised Kingston City Board of Ethics met for the first time ever, Thursday evening at City Hall, punctuated by a private session. No witnesses were called.
Afterward, Chairman Allan Nace adjourned with brief remarks. Other board freshmen are Patricia Murphy, Arthur Coston, Glenn Fitzgerald and Jose Villa (absent).
Nance and the new board asked Assistant City Corporation Counsel Daniel
Gartenstein for minutes of the previous board meeting.
“We’d like to see those minutes, if there are minutes for that meeting,” Nace told Gartenstein. The board also requested independent counsel, to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
“It may be wise to first speak with the attorney, review the minutes,
meet again, discuss it, and then make a determination,” Nace said.
Gartenstein represented the city, serving an advisory capacity. Also
present was Joseph DiFalco, complainant, who objected to Gartenstein’s
presence as a potential conflict of interest.
Case particulars involve a waiver allegedly granted to former alderman Brad Will, allowing the Irish Cultural Center to hire him, despite a Revolving Door restriction in the current ethics code. Outside employment with municipal applicants is prohibited to ex- aldermen for two years.
DiFalco claims that Kingston granted Brad Will an ethics waiver without ethics board approval. The latest round of charges accuses Mayor Steven Noble, with city attorneys, of misrepresenting material facts to benefit Brad Will in that matter.
Kingston’s Revolving Door provision was repealed Tuesday night by the city council, although not yet signed into law by the mayor. Technically the pending charges must be interpreted under current law, a legacy section.
Mayor Noble dismissed the old ethics board on May 16th, one month after the April 16th hearing when Brad Will officially resigned.
