Our friend Dwight left a pair of shoes which need filling. His contributions to civic life in East Greenbush cannot be duplicated, but they can be pursued. We’ll try to do the best we can. This is particularly important because our local Ethics issues still remain unresolved. They’ve been stuck in the mud for over six months after yeoman’s service by a hard-working Ethics Board appointed by the Town Board. For the “definitive history” of the struggle read Ray Mooney’s Post and the Comments on this link:
Bottom line, in my view, is that this is just not the time for “watering–down” ethics standards for the convenience of current or future public officers. It is becoming uncomfortably obvious that this “watering-down” is the agenda behind the precipitous halt to the promulgation of a new Ethics Code for East Greenbush. I believe that Ms. O’Brien said as much at the last Town Board Meeting. To bad we don’t have a tape from Nate Hans, but I think the comment was to the effect that if standards are too high, citizens would be reluctant to run for office. I think you can also read that there would be “difficulties” for some current Board members too.
There’s a parallel concern expressed in today’s Times Union on the OpEd Page. Take a look at this article related to the State’s new Public Integrity Reform Act:
Those who want to dilute ethical standards for “convenience” or other personal issues, and those who still want to conceal the work of the East Greenbush Ethics board are simply on the wrong side of history.
And yes, we’ve named this Blog after the label taped to Ray Mooney’s back by our own Board Member Malone. It’s fitting. We’re going to be commenting on Establishment behavior and performance.
(We’ll be straightening up appearance and formatting issues as we go along.)
