Board of Ethics

The Board of Ethics of the City of Mount Vernon Minutes of the meeting of August 17, 2023 The meeting was called to order by the Chair at 6:38 p.m. Board members present in the Mayor’s Conference Room at City Hall were Curtis Brewington, Chair; Ed Byrnes, Vice Chair; John McGlynn, Secretary; Blair Hoplight, Beresford Granston, Leslie Alpert and Rev. F. Romall Smalls. City Clerk Tanesia Walters was also present. A motion was made to approve the proposed minutes for 7/13/23. The minutes were approved 7-0. A topic was introduced for discussion as to what procedures would be taken by the Board when a person does not respond to email messages sent to them by the Board regarding Financial Disclosure Statements (FDSs), or in those cases where we get no response to the email message that we sent to a person where we make a request for data or information in regard to confidential investigations that are being conducted by the Board. The Board agreed to the following procedures: 1. For FDS matters, we would send another email message giving the person additional time to comply with the filing of a FDS, and we would then notify the City Clerk’s office by sending them these emails with the hope that the City Clerk’s office would print out them out and achieve their delivery. 2. For communications related to Board investigations of ethical complaints, in those instances where the person does not respond within the requested time to our email message, we would print out the email message and put it in a sealed envelope addressed to the person and write “Personal and Confidential” on the outside of the envelope. We would give this envelope to the City Clerk’s office with the hope that they would take the necessary steps to achieve its delivery. 3. If the person who is sent such a message from us, as noted above, continues to be unresponsive to our requests, at the appropriate time, the Board would send an email message to the person who has supervisory authority over them to direct them to respond. During the meeting, Tanesia Walters was asked if she and her office would assist the Board in achieving our goal of communicating with city officials and employees. Ms. Walters responded she would assist the Board in a variety of ways in order to achieve the common goal of notifying persons of communications directed to them from the Board. Ms. Walters stated that she and her office would print out hard-copies of our FDS messages, and assist with the delivery of those hard-copies including the use of the internal mail delivery system at City Hall, or in some cases hand deliver to the addressees, or in other cases involving those boards that are associated with the Planning Department, she would coordinate the delivery of the hard-copies with the secretary of the Land Use Boards. Ms. Walters volunteered that, in a case involving a confidential investigation where we have asked a person to give us information or answer our questions, and where that person has not responded to our email message, the City Clerk’s office would accept a sealed envelope from us addressed to that person, marked “Personal and Confidential” on the outside of the envelope. Ms. Walters volunteered that she or her office would take the necessary steps to achieve the delivery of that envelope. She said that, if possible, she would try to get the person to acknowledge receipt of the envelope with a signature. Ms. Walters said that, if possible, she would try to keep a record of any delivery of these hard-copies to any of these persons, and she would provide such a record to the Board. A motion was then made and seconded that 13 persons who have not filed their FDSs should get an email message which would give them an additional 15 days to correct that deficiency. After a discussion, a vote was taken and a majority approved of the motion by a 5-2 vote. A motion to go to Executive Session was made and approved 7-0. Ms. Walters left the meeting. All matters during this session were con dential in nature, and, therefore, they have been redacted in order to allow this version of the minutes to be available to the public. A motion to go end Executive Session and approved 7-0. fi During the Executive Session, the Zoom connection was hacked by an unknown individual, and reported to the Clerk as such. A motion was made to end the meeting and approved 7-0. Ms. Walters joined the meeting. The meeting was ended at 8:37 PM. Curtis will canvass the BOE to decide on the date of the next meeting. Respectfully submitted, John McGlynn Secretary