Mayor names 3 to ethics board
TROY, N.Y. » Mayor Patrick Madden has chosen an attorney, a retired economist and the head of the YWCA of the Greater Capital Region to fill long-vacant seats on the city’s Ethics Commission.
In a news release emailed late Friday afternoon, Madden announced his choices of Daquetta Jones, Ryan Manley and Steve Muller to join sitting members John Cubit and Harriet Warnock-Graham on the seven-member board. The three positions on the board appointed by the mayor had been vacant since before the mayor took office in January 2016.
“I am very pleased to appoint these distinguished community members to the city’s Ethics Commission,” Madden said in the release. “Each will bring a fresh perspective to this important oversight body, and I am confident they will serve the residents of Troy with distinction.”
The three new members come from varied backgrounds. Manley is a former prosecutor and assistant state attorney general now in private practice in Albany, while Muller is a retired economist for the U.S. State Department who moved to Troy in 2003. Jones replaced the retiring Sherry Rounds as executive director of the YWCA in December 2013 after working as operations manager of the HIV services program at Whitney Young Health Care Center in Albany. The appointments leave two more vacancies to be filled, one apiece to be selected by majority and minority members of the City Council, according to the city website.
The commission has been largely inactive since a brief meeting in August 2016, with the group having difficulties achieving the necessary quorum to convene a meeting even before Sara Fish retired and the terms of Jennifer Carmichael and Suzanne Scales expired.
Council President carmella Mantello questioned why Madden waited 18 months after taking office to fill his seats on the comission, while also leaving unfilled his appointed seats on two similar city boards.
“I am taking a long hard look at the Ethics Commission and how they operate, due to the composition [and] how they’re appointed,” Mantello wrote. “I’m also reviewing the Police Objective Review Board and the Human Rights Commission (mayor has all appointments for both Police Objective Review and Human Rights boards), which have not been in operation since January 2016. I will be consulting with past and present members and the community at large for input. Once I’ve concluded my review, I will make a recommendation to the City Council and mayor as to any proposed changes to the ethics law and ethics commission.”
Several council members asked that the commission be reactivated in March, in the wake of allegations against council President Carmella Mantello that she was improperly providing information on upcoming legislation to former city manager Steven Dworsky, with Dworsky using the information to launch personal attacks on council members — including Republicans Mark McGrath and John Donohue — who went against Mantello’s direction. Mantello denied any impropriety at the time.