Board of Ethics

The Board of Ethics of the City of Mount Vernon Minutes of the meeting of February 24, 2022 The meeting began at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom, and attendees were: John McGlynn, Curtis Brewington, Blair Hoplight, and Ed Byrnes. Brian Johnson, the Corporation Counsel of the City of Mount Vernon joined the meeting at 7:25 p.m. A summary of Mr. Johnson’s part of the meeting is annexed as an addendum, which is to be considered as part of the minutes of this meeting. This meeting was the rst meeting of the Board since April, 2021, because the Board did not have a suf cient number of members to achieve a quorum of four persons during that ten-month period. The two new members and the two holdover members (McGlynn and Byrnes) exchanged greetings. Actions taken by the Board at this meeting Vote #1 A motion was made and seconded that Article IV - Meetings §1 of the Board’s Rules and Regulations (hereafter referred to as Rules) should be revised by replacing the present language which states: Regular Meetings and Voting. The Board shall meet no less than once every three months and more as necessary. A majority of all the members shall constitute a quorum. The new language will be: Regular Meetings and Voting. The Board shall meet no less than once every three months and more as necessary. A Board meeting cannot take place unless a quorum is achieved. A quorum is de ned by the New York General Construction Law §41 as a majority of the total number of members which are authorized for the Board. After a discussion on this motion, a vote was taken and all four members voted in favor of this motion. Vote #2 A discussion was held about whether or not the Board should keep the requirement of a secret ballot for the election of of cers, which is found as a part of Article II, §2 of the Rules. The members unanimously agreed that such a requirement of a secret ballot should be removed. A motion was made and seconded that Article II, §2 of the Rules be revised by replacing the rst two full sentences of that rule, which state: The members of the Board shall elect a Chair, a Vice-Chair and a Secretary and any other of cers which fi fi fi fi fi fi a majority of the Board agrees. Elections are by secret ballot and require a majority vote of the entire Board. The new language will be: The members of the Board shall elect a Chair, a Vice-Chair and a Secretary and any other of cers which are agreed upon by a majority of the members present. Elections require a majority vote of the members present. After a discussion on this motion, a vote was taken and all four members voted in favor of this motion. Vote #3 A vote was taken to elect the Secretary of the Board. There was only one announced candidate, Ed, who received the vote of all four members. Vote #4 A motion was made and seconded that Article II, §6 of our Rules, which now lists the power and duties of the Secretary with subdivisions (a) through (f) be revised to add subdivision (g), as follows: g. Manage the documents which are contained in the Board’s secure locked ling cabinet at City Hall. This management power includes the authority to sign, on behalf of the Board, the Records Destruction Authorization form for documents in that cabinet that are eligible to be disposed of in accordance with the city’s policy, as found in the Retention and Disposition Schedule for N. Y. Local Government Records. After a discussion on this motion, a vote was taken and all four members voted in favor of this motion. Vote #5 A motion was made and seconded that the Board should authorize the isolation of documents in the Board’s ling cabinet at City Hall for the purpose of selecting such documents as eligible for destruction by the city. The motion included the procedure that our actions would comply with the City’s policy, which is found in the Retention and Disposition Schedule for N. Y. Local Government Records. Also, the procedure calls for the Secretary of the Board of Ethics and one other member of the Board to agree on what documents would be eligible for destruction. These two people would not necessarily have to be together at the same time, but they would each have to sign o regarding the same documents under consideration for destruction. After a discussion on this motion, a vote was taken and all four members voted in favor of this motion. fi ff fi fi  When all of the voting was completed, Brian Johnson joined the meeting, and that visit is summarized in the addendum below. The Johnson visit concluded around 8:30 p.m. It was then noted that our next meeting would be on March 3 at 7:00 p.m. The meeting ended at 8:35 p.m. with no objections being heard. Note that upon a request that the addendum be reclassi ed as a con dential document, the Board voted 5-0 on March 16, 2023 to make such a reclassi cation. Accordingly, the contents of the addendum are now classi ed as con dential and thus unavailable to the public. fi fi fi fi fi