Brockport adopts ethics code amendments

Brockport adopts ethics code amendments

Tempers flared and voices were raised during the public hearing on May 21 during which Village of Brockport officials looked at amendments to the village code on ethics as they related to village officials accepting gifts and the way appointments were made to the board.

According to information received from Village Manager Ian Coyle following the meeting, the village's ethics code was 37-years-old and updates were looked into by board members. The village recommenced the actual Board of Ethics about a year ago and Mayor Mort Wexler recommended names of five people to serve on the board. "The actual board calls for an employee to serve, but some members did not want that. However, the law that governs local boards of ethics stipulates there must be an employee. So the board thought to change this and make the employee be a non-voting member," he said.

Mayor Mort Wexler opposed the changes proposed for the way individuals were appointed to the ethics board. "As a general rule, the mayor appoints individuals subject to board approval," he said. "If we make a change with this board (ethics) then we will have two different ways of selecting people to committees. I don't know whether this is an issue of trust."

Voices were raised when discussion started about appointing an employee to serve on the ethics committee - as state law requires.

Trustee Connie Castaneda questioned whether the board was going to curtail the power of the mayor by not allowing him to appoint individuals to the ethics board if it would need to go to a referendum.

Trustee Hanny Heyen said she spoke at length with NICOM (one of the governing boards of municipalities) and it was understood that the board has the power to make appointments and to fill vacancies.

Trustee David Wagenhauser said the ethics board is a different matter than the other village boards. "Right now we are trying to take a gray area and make it as white as we can," he said.

When the issue was raised about a former appointment of an employee to the board, Trustee Carrie Maziarz said she had no problem with the individual who had been appointed, it was a matter of having an employee - who may be asked to make decisions on ethical dilemmas that might involve his or her supervisor. "The ethics board should be an independent body, it should be unbiased, otherwise it defies the definition of ethical."

Because state law says an employee must be on the board of ethics, they will be a non-voting member.

"You people asked me to remove an individual from the board," Wexler said.

"Right now you are politicizing this appointment," Maziarz said. "I am offended that you would think or imply that we didn't want that particular person to serve on the board of ethics. That is not true - our concern was that an employee on the board could have been put in a position where they may have had to compromise themselves (during the course of service)."

Village officials went through a series of meetings and debates on the code changes including ideas on the appointment process. "The village law says the mayor appoints individuals to serve on boards - other than the ethics board - subject to village board approval. In this case, the village board majority felt the board, not the mayor as the code currently reads, should be the appointing authority. The mayor deemed this an attempt to curtail his power and aimed directly at him the person and not the position," Coyle said.

Coyle said that Heyen recommended, and it was voted on at the meeting, to update the gifts/favors/donations section of the ethics code, which is a change to now forbid such actions. "Before, I believe it was a set dollar value."

Following the debate, it was voted on, and approved, by a four to one margin, to change the way members are appointed to the code of ethics board and to eliminate the acceptance of gifts.