MAMAKATING — One of the many changes considered by the new town board is the dissolution of the Mamakating Ethics board.

The board voted at their most recent meeting on January 14 to hold a public hearing on February 4 at 6 p.m. at town hall regarding dissolving the Ethics Board.

The Ethics Board was created in 2014 after former councilman Matt Taylor, and the former town board, wrote the Code of Ethics Law in response to questionable practices by members of the Mamakating Government.

Back in 2012, as reported by the Sullivan County Democrat and Matt Taylor, Mamakating's Town Hall busted at the seams with over 300 angry residents.

The attorney for the town at the time, Richard Stollof, also represented Duane Roe who aimed to build on land he owned on Burlingham Road. The building would require a special permit and residents accused Stollof and former councilman Russel Wood (who worked with Roe) of conflicts of interest.

Residents argued that zoning laws were going to be changed to favor Stollof and Wood's personal interests. As a result of this, the Code of Ethics Law and a new Ethics Board was put into place.

Since then, it has come out in 2016 that former Town Supervisor Harold Baird pleaded guilty to conspiring to submit a false voter registration so he could run for office in Bloomingburg. This point was brought up by Holly Roche, a town resident who spoke out against the change.

The town board announced this change in response to Governor Andrew Cuomo's 2017 legislation that affects all counties in New York State, as noted by the Executive Summary of the Shared Services Plan. The Shared Services Plan can be found on the Sullivan County Manager's website. Cuomo's law, also known as “County Wide Shared Services Property Tax Savings Plan Law,” says that each county must work with their local governments to look for ways to consolidate services in order to save tax payer money.

Town Supervisor Janet Lybolt says that Mamakating is slowly starting to comply with this law, and the first part of this shared services plan is to eliminate the Ethics Board and allow the county to take over any complaints about ethics.

This decision was met with a lot of criticism. Taylor spoke out and said he wanted to investigate the county ethics laws to make sure that citizens could still make a complaint with the county and not just employees or board members.

Samara Ferris, a current Ethics Board member, asked the board, “What would be the benefit of centralizing government to the county?” She pointed out to the meeting that the Ethics Board is “purely voluntary” and members do not get paid; therefore, the town is not saving any money by not having one.

Lybolt responded that the “Governor dictated that municipalities share services,” and this was the start, and more changes will be coming.

Ferris said that there would be “no benefit” to this. She noted that the point of shared services is to save money, and the town saves nothing. Instead, she asserted, it takes away power from the people to be able to make a complaint about ethical concerns to their local government.

She expressed concern about this because, according to Ferris, many people in the community are seniors who may not use the computer or have transportation and may not be able to make it to the county.

Ferris also said that instead of speaking to someone that people know to make a complaint, the citizens would have to speak to someone they do not know at the county.

Lybolt and other members of the board noted that this change will be better because the county will be able to be more impartial when ethical concerns rise because the county would not know local government members or employees personally.

Councilman Thomas Morrow argued that it is not fair for a town board to appoint their friends to the ethics board who then will judge them if the town does something wrong. Councilman John Lacey also shared this opinion that it is unfair to have friends on the ethics board and when the county takes over, “hearings and judgement will be fair and more impartial.”

Brenda Giraldi, former deputy town supervisor, noted that all the boards have their own autonomy and members are not necessarily connected to previous town boards to keep impartiality. While the town board was in executive session, Taylor said that having the previous town board appoint ethics board members was better because, “you don't have buddies looking at what you do.” He noted that this was why terms often go beyond town board terms, so they are “not strictly favorites” of the current town board.

In addition, Lybolt noted that prior to 2014, the county handled all ethical complaints.

Holly Roche stood up and questioned this decision when Mamakating has been “severely impacted” by ethical concerns, referring specifically to Harold Baird.

Giraldi mentioned that the former town board approved the Code of Ethics law because of the “significant corruption” of the town and planning boards. Giraldi also mentioned that the county was not involved, nor did they do anything about the corruption. Lybolt responded that the Town of Mamakating did not do anything at the time either.

The public hearing to dissolve the ethics board will be on February 4, 2020 at 6 p.m. at town hall.