Hein vetoes ethics board power shif t
Ulster County Executive Michael Hein on Thursday vetoed a local law that would have given the Legislature significant power over the county’s ethics board, saying the measure was both technically flawed and violated the tenets of good government.
In a three-page veto message, Hein said allowing the law to take effect would “be a disservice to our citizens and open the door to potential future corruption.”
The executive criticized the measure’s sponsors for bringing forward a bill that he called “polit-
ically motivated” and said he’s learned that some “legislators may have been misinformed regarding the law and its consequences prior to the vote.”
The county Legisltaure voted 17-5 in August to change the county charter to take away from the county executive the sole ability to recommend appointments to the fivemember Ethics Board and give the Legislature control over three of those appointments. Under the county charter, adopted in 2006,
the executive nominates individuals for all five seats on the board and the Legislature confirms those appointments.
The amended measure also would have allowed the Legislature to remove any member of the Board of Ethics by a simple-majority vote.
Hein said the “checks and balances” provided under the current appointment process ensure each member of the board is fully vetted and that “no one member is beholden to any one person, one political party or one organization.”
“The desire of both of this bill’s sponsors to change
this to a system where the board is fully under legislative control is suspect at best and, unfortunately, politically motivated at worst,” he said.
Hein said the result of the enacting the law would be to create “a pathway to any number of unethical behaviors where a future Legislature can appoint the majority of the members ... and remove any member expressing opposing views or whose opinion they simply do not like.”
The bill vetoed by Hein was sponsored by Legislators David Donaldson, DKingston, and Joe Maloney, D-Saugerties.
Maloney, a first-term
county lawmaker, has said people don’t believe they can get a fair shake before the Board of Ethics because its members are appointed by Hein. He’s accused Hein of launching a behind-thescenes campaign against the change that resulted in the League of Women Voters weighing in on the matter.
Maloney was one of two individuals to receive advisory opinions from the board earlier this year. In highly redacted copies of the decisions, the board recommended the legislators recuse themselves from voting on any matters pertinent to the office in which a relative is employed, “including
those that concern funding.”
Maloney’s wife, Elizabeth Weredyk, works in the county Comptroller’s Office, and Maloney recently voted to approve a labor contract that would benefit his wife. He has defended his vote, saying his wife is one of more than 1,400 employees covered by the contract.
During a public hearing in August, Derek Spada, chairman of the Board of Ethics, said the proposed law could be in conflict with general municipal law, which calls for members to be appointed by the executive and confirmed by the Legislature.
He also said the board has issued dozens of advisory opinions and that, with one exception, those opinions always have been followed.
Members of the League of Women Voters and former County Attorney Bea Havranek opposed the changes.
It now will be up to county legislators to decide whether they want to try overriding the executive veto. It takes the votes of two-thirds of the 23-member Legislature, or 16 votes, to override a veto.
If legislators override the veto, the measure will go before the voters in November for a final decision.