Ethical Ed and the Board of “Ethics” -- By Jack Conway

In his continuing role as political hatchet man, Ed Gilbert launched an attack on me in his Times Union blog.  This is my response:

Ed -

I’ll try to be kind but your delusions about yourself and the Board of Ethics are starting to worry me.  I love it when you say you’re only following the law because one member of the Board of Ethics must be a town employee.  You only qualify because you’re being paid for the non-paying job of deputy supervisor.  I have repeatedly demanded that a written job description be promulgated to justify that salary and none has been forthcoming.  This leads to a reasonable perception that you’re being paid to sit on the Board of Ethics in direct violation of State law.  One member of the board must be a town employee but it doesn’t have to be you.  Rick McCabe appointed Jim Breig and not only was Jim non-political, he wasn’t even a member of McCabe’s party.  That’s how you do it if you understand that the first rule of a Board of Ethics is that its members must be impartial.

Instead Keith Langley selected his own personal political bodyguard to sit on the Board of Ethics.  You are a bitterly partisan political operator who has run for office twice, has served (still serve?) as Vice Chairman of the County Conservative Party, had your hands all over one of the most vile blogs ever to appear in this town, posted political editorials like this one on the TU blog, harassed minority town board members (remember demanding that Phil Malone apologize to Keith Langley?), shilled for the majority, shilled for Keith Langley and, best of all, now shill for Saratoga Casino & Raceway.  You also regularly insult residents at public hearings.  As Chair of the Board of Ethics you should never have taken a stand on whether this town should have a casino.  Go back and look at my record.  I didn’t take a stand on political issues, and only commented on blogs and at meetings on questions that were specifically asked about the Board of Ethics.  I also held meetings twice a month at which the public was invited to participate at every level.  You haven’t held a single meeting since you started shilling for the casino.  You can be a political operator OR you can be a member of the Board of Ethics but you can’t be both.  You’re a walking conflict of interest and the scariest part is that you don’t get it.  It’s terrifying that the person with responsibility for monitoring conflicts of interest doesn’t even recognize the conflict of interest that’s staring at him every morning in the mirror.

Your historical version of how those rules and regulations came into being is hallucinatory.  We drafted an excellent Code of Ethics but the democratic majority refused to include financial disclosure.  We decided to pass that rough first draft of the rules and regs in order to put pressure on the majority because with rules in place people could file complaints under the 1974 Ethics Law.  With the promise that they would reconsider financial disclosure, we suspended those rules in less than a month.  They only exist now because YOU passed them as a final version.  But they work for you because we both know you wouldn’t maintain the confidence of any town employee who filed a complaint against Langley, DiMartino or Matters.  How many complaints have you gotten?  None?  That’s because people know what you will do to them.  Langley’s message in appointing you is clear: whistleblowers will not be tolerated. 

I strived to set a fair, impartial tone for that Board and have watched my work go up in the flames of your political temper.  The Board of Ethics only exists now as a joke that everyone gets but you.  If you would like to restore a semblance of honor to this critical institution I recommend you immediately do the following:

Make a public pledge not to run for Town Board next year.

Remove yourself from the debate on the casino and every other political issue.

Cease writing partisan blogs.

End your political relationship with the Supervisor and the majority.

Insist that a written job description be published detailing exactly what you are getting paid for as deputy supervisor.

Hold Board of Ethics meetings instead of walking neighborhoods with candidate petitions (not a political operator you say?)

Treat people with respect if they hold views different from your own.

And last but not least, get a grip.  Keith Langley should have known enough not to appoint you to the Board of Ethics; you should have known not to accept the appointment.  That the two of you don’t get it proves how little you understand the concept of ethics and the function of a Board of Ethics.  You should do the honorable thing - stand up, apologize to the residents of East Greenbush, and resign your appointment.