Hearing on Gateway moratorium proposal

KINGSTON >> Mayor Steve Noble will take comments Tuesday regarding a proposed amendment to the city’s Ethics Law.

The public hearing will begin at 6 p.m. in the Common Council chambers at City Hall, 420 Broadway.

Following the hearing, Noble will decide whether to sign or veto the legislation.

During a meeting Sept. 13, the Common Council voted 6-2 to adopt the amended legislation. Minority Leader Deborah Brown, R-Ward 9, and Alderwoman Maryann Mills, D-Ward 7, voted against the amendment. There had been no public comment from aldermen before the vote.

Four members of the public, however, had addressed the council, expressing concerns with the proposal.

Andrew Champ-Doran said he approved of a change to the current Ethics Law that allows the city to open and review the annual financial disclosure forms submitted by certain Kingston employees and officials, but he was concerned over a change to a clause regarding future employment. He said that clause prevented an employee or city official from making money off of someone who they had previously had discretionary say over. “That must stay in the proposed law,” ChampDoran said. He added that without such language, employees and officials could sell their office.

Daniel Gartenstein, the city’s assistant corporation counsel, has said the proposed amendment would address problems with the current Ethics Law. Those problems include the inability to open and review the annual financial disclosure forms, he said.

Gartenstein has also said the current law’s wideranging definition of conflict of interest has threatened to disrupt the work of city boards because of unnecessary restrictions on the ability of members to vote on particular matters.

During the council meeting, resident Owen Harvey spoke about the city’s Heritage Area Commission being unable to vote at a recent meeting regarding the Irish Cultural Center proposal due to a lack of a quorum of members who could act on the matter. He said he hoped the new Ethics Law was not being rushed as a result of that project.

Harvey and his wife, Hillary, are among neighbors of the proposed Irish Cultural Center on Abeel Street who have filed a challenge with the Zoning Board of Appeals over what uses the building could be put to.

Hillary Harvey added that the city should educate its officials and board members about the proper way to recuse themselves from matters on which they cannot vote. She also said those same individuals should be required to state publicly why they are recusing themselves.

Resident Joseph DiFalco, who filed an ethics complaint against Noble and the city’s corporation counsel, said no members of the Common Council contributed to the new law. He said it was completely crafted by corporation counsel, who claimed they were making the law stronger. DiFalco said the proposed law is actually weaker.

In his ethics complaint, DiFalco alleged Noble’s dissolution of the Ethics Board in May was illegal, and that Noble and Corporation Counsel Kevin Bryant mishandled the ethics probe into former Alderman Brad Will, D-Ward 3, who resigned from the Common Council in April.

After the complaint was filed, Noble appointed a temporary Ethics Board to address the matter.

DiFalco said the administration has been “stalling” on his complaint.