Spada: “… unnecessary and
problematic”
KINGSTON – A brief public hearing held Thursday at the Ulster County
Office Building underscored controversy surrounding a proposed change
in the county ethics law, approved by the legislature last June. All four
speakers slammed Local Law #18 of 2018 as a terrible idea.
The revision grants the county legislature the ability to control membership of the five-person ethics board, by selecting a majority of three members plus full confirmation and removal powers. It passed by a vote of 17 to 5 on June 17, with legislators Bartels, Gerentine, Haynes, Nolan, and Woltman dissenting.
The current arrangement, in place since 2009, has the county executive propose ethics board members, and the legislature confirm them. No more than two members can be of the same political party.
“It‘s a solution in search of a problem, but it also creates a problem, which also bothers me,” said former League of Women Voters Mid-Hudson Region Co-President Dare Thompson.. “Everybody agrees that the ethics board, as its currently operating, is just fine.”
Derek Spada, the ethics board chairman, said the changes are not needed.
“It is our opinion that the proposed legislation is unnecessary, and problematic,” Spada said, speaking on behalf of his colleagues.
Spada said that the change violates state municipal law, which dictates the current system. “Any change to the appointment process may open the door to corruption. To the best of our knowledge, our advisory opinions have been adhered to, by all except one individual.” Spada noted in his statement. Records of the ethics board have the names of the officials they discuss redacted.
Former county attorney Beatrice Havranek, who helped draft the original county charter, agreed. “What exactly are we fixing?” she asked, in a letter read by League member Tom Kagen. She said the proposed ethics revision erodes the ideal of checks and balances, returning local government to the days of political and self-interests.
Havranek added that the new removal powers granted by the legislature to itself could have a chilling effect on future decisions rendered by the ethics board members.
County Executive Michael Hein declined comment, other than to say he has ten days from the public hearing to decide whether he signs the new law, or vetoes it.
County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach, who is charged with auditing and reviewing county spending, supports the ethics board changes, noted by telephone after the public hearing that the legislature holds the purse strings of county government.
