Don’t abolish ethics boards
POSTED: March 20, 2008
The Broadalbin Town Board is considering getting rid of the town ethics board because it rarely meets to take up ethics complaints.
Town officials say the board hasn’t met in more than two years. Supervisor Lee Hollenbeck supports abolishing the group.
We think ending it would be a mistake. Every municipality should have an ethics board, whether it’s called upon to deal with an ethics complaint or not.
If the ethics board has no cases before it, it at least should meet once or twice a year to talk about ethics issues and keep the board active. There is no harm in Broadalbin or any other municipality maintaining an ethics board, which can play a significant role in protecting the public from politicians who try to abuse their power.
If municipalities are finding it too difficult to find people to serve on their ethics boards, we have another possible solution.
The Fulton County ethics board, which reviews county government ethics complaints, could serve as the ethics board for some or even all of the municipalities in the county.
The five-member county committee meets infrequently about ethics issues. The group last reviewed a case in 2007 involving former Board of Supervisors Chairman Peter Stone’s personal connection to a county water line project. The county committee easily could handle the few cases each year from the other localities.
County ethics committee member George Manchester of Bleecker agrees the single board probably could serve all of the localities. The idea “might make sense,” he said.
Longtime county ethics board member Arthur Spring, who also serves as the county attorney, said one county board serving all of the municipalities may be feasible, depending on the number of cases coming before the board.
Manchester pointed out the change would be another example of consolidation of services. We agree.
In addition, the county ethics committee may be more impartial than the local ethics boards when considering cases in the various small communities.
County supervisors should give the idea some thought. Ethics are important. A mechanism should be in place to discourage local politicians from behaving improperly.
Member Comments
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noodledoodle30
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03-24-08 6:06 PM
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that's simple no ethics board that gives them the right to be more crooked to the ones they want and get away with it more so than they do now.
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noodledoodle30
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03-24-08 6:03 PM
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well i would say no..but it isnt like they use it anyways....matter of fact when a tax assessor stole things out of the code enforcers room ,it was mentioned about a ethic comittee and mister hollenbeck said there wasnt one...and now there is.so did that tax assessor get investigated of course not..see what we do here in broadalbin they go after the ones they feel like and let the ones that really do wrong (including those in office get away with everything)..when you mention any kind of complaint to the superviser he sais it is out of his hands.my ? is what is in his hands?he is the superviser whether one in elected or appointed he is to make them walk a straight line..instead they do crooked things and get away with it. i say a new superviser..all new assesers...all new planning board..and 90%new board members so maybe we can get the crookedness out and fairness in.most of them has turned to politic they are not for us people anymore.
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fifthestatewatchdog
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03-20-08 1:01 PM
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The county ethics committee has no teeth to take action or enforce, only investigate and turn their findings to the County Board of Supervisors, that's like letting the fox watch the henhouse. And appointments to the county ethics board are political. Sending people to 'the county' to file an ethics complaint is inconvenient and designed to deter people from questioning their elected officials - I've called county ethics and gotten a wishy-washy answer to a question over a week later. Not efficient, cumbersome, and discourages people from exercising their rights. We should wonder why the elected officials in Broadalbin are so eager to do away with their local ethics board, what don't they want us to know about?
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Patriot1
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03-20-08 12:15 PM
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The county ethics committee should be comprised of non-political county citizens with proven reputations of the highest integrity The small townships which form Fulton County are in constant need of monitoring because of the parochial mindset which has suffused them for decades. Some would say that this approach smacks of "big-brotherism". From what I've seen over those decades, it smacks of necessity.
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airphoto
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03-20-08 11:41 AM
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An excellent post, and kudos to the editors. A review of Broadalbin's ethics law would reveal that the ethics board is required to, secretly, report its findings to the town clowncil for their action. Unfortunately, the town clowncil, particularly the stupidviser, and his associate the mini-stupidviser are the most ethically challenged individuals and most likely targets of any complaints to or findings by our ethics board ..
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