Board of Ethics

The Board of Ethics of the City of Mount Vernon Minutes of the meeting of November 7, 2022 The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom, and all six members were in attendance, namely, Curtis Brewington, Chair; Ed Byrnes, Secretary; John McGlynn, Vice-Chair; Lorna Kirwan, Khendra David, and Blair Hoplight. A motion was made and seconded to approve the proposed minutes for 10/17/22. Approved 6-0. A discussion took place on the topic of the Board meetings and whether they would continue being conducted exclusively via Zoom or whether they would be conducted with at least a quorum of the members gathering together at a City Hall location. When the discussion concluded there was a consensus among all members that we would continue to meet virtually via Zoom for our meetings in accordance with the Board’s finding, on June 1, 2022, of an “extraordinary circumstance”, that continues into the present time. A motion was made to go into a confidential session Since it was known that there were a few confidential matters that had to be discussed by the Board, a motion was made and seconded that the Board should go into a confidential session. A vote was taken, and it was unanimous that the Board would immediately go into such a confidential session. The Zoom recording stopped while the Board was in the confidential session. Confidential session Confidential Matter L Confidential Matter N A motion was made and seconded that the Board go out of the confidential session and return to a public session. The motion was approved by a vote of 6-0. Public session resumes Ed reported that there were 4 persons left who still have not filed the required Financial Disclosure Statements (FDSs), and they have been notified numerous times to do so, but they haven’t responded. Ed said that he would go to City Hall next week to see if there were any late filings, and if there were still any non-filers at that point, he would send out an email to the members of the Board with a recommendation that a “Notice of Delinquency” (NOD) be issued against each non- filer. Ed said that in his email he would include a proposed NOD for the members to consider with the aim of getting agreement so that NODs could be issued. Ed noted that if a NOD was issued, it would have to be sent to 10 people in accordance with the City Code. The non-filer would get the NOD and a copy of the NOD would be sent to 9 persons in the city government, namely each of the 5 City Council members, the mayor, the Human Resources Commissioner, the City Clerk, and Patricia Fleming, the secretary to the City Clerk. All members present at the meeting agreed to end the meeting around 7:11 p.m. Prepared by Ed Byrnes, Secretary