Town Board decisions always should be made on the basis of what's best for the town's residents, without being improperly influenced by conflicts of interest. In some cases, a Town Board member's misguided vote can have an outsized impact, especially the Town Supervisor's.
Conflicts of interest at the Town Board level arise most clearly when a Town Board member has a financial interest in the matter being decided. However, conflicts of interest also can arise in less direct ways. For example, a Town Board member may favor someone with business before the town who has made a significant campaign contribution. For those of you who may be interested, the campaign contributions that the current Town Supervisor and I, respectively, have received since he first ran for office in 2023 are a matter of public record.
Unfortunately, it's not unheard of for a Town Board member to be improperly influenced by an improper desire for personal gain from an applicant who benefits from a favorable Town Board member's vote and may be inclined to express appreciation for that favorable vote by, for example, steering lucrative business to that Town Board member's business interest. These concerns are heightened in matters involving real estate development because that's where large amounts of money are most commonly at stake.
As residents, we should not have doubts or concerns as to whether our elected officials have conflicts of interest, and with me you don't. I won't accept campaign contributions – or loans – above $50 from developers or their lawyers or anyone else. Furthermore, I don't have business or other interests with any potential to allow me to profit from my position on the Town Board.
To help avoid decisions being improperly influenced by conflicts of interest, our town has an Ethics Code that applies to elected officials, town employees and volunteer members of the town's boards and committees.
I am a proponent of a strong Ethics Code, and have been the Town Board liaison to the town's Board of Ethics for many years. Although an Ethics Code cannot eliminate all improperly influenced decisions, it helps mitigate concerns about whether Town Board decisions are being improperly influenced, especially when it is reviewed and updated regularly.
Against this backdrop, I am deeply troubled that important improvements to the Ethics Code that originally were proposed by the Board of Ethics in late 2024, were not – despite repeated requests – put on the agenda by the current Town Supervisor for a Town Board vote last year, even though it was clear that a Town Board majority was in favor of the proposed improvements since early last year. Among other things, those changes were designed to reduce the potential influence of campaign contributions on decisions relating to real estate.