Committee Paves The Way For Ethics Board

OSWEGO, NY – Monday night, the Planning and Development Committee paved the way for establishing an Oswego city board of ethics.

The full council will consider the proposal at its meeting next week.

Mayor William Barlow recommended creation of the board to dispel the public’s perceived corruption in city government.

“The code of ethics was first adopted in the city of Oswego in 1980,” according to Kevin Caraccioli, city attorney. “It provide for a total of seven sections.”

Since then, things have changed in both state and local government, he added.

“There is a plethora of cases at the state level in particular of elected officials violating the public trust,” he said. “In the state of government, I think, there is a lot of mistrust. This is our effort top try to address that.”

The state requires all governing bodies to comply with a code of ethics, he explained.

“We do comply with the state law. The point is … making local government accountable to the voters, to the people,” the city attorney said.

The three-member board would be appointed by the mayor; that would be concurrent with the mayor’s term. So, from administration to administration, there could be fresh members on the board.

The board is designed to interpret the questions that come up – from people within the government and outside the government Caraccioli said.

“The proposed model goes from the existing seven sections to approximately 22 sections. Let me be clear, I’m not a big fan of expanding the size of government or making things more complicated. But I do think that what this achieves, if considered and adopted by the Common Council, is to bring the city of Oswego into the 21st Century, the way governments ought to be run,” he said. “Therefore, I certainly would highly recommend favorable consideration of this resolution.”

Ben Kolp of Oswego said he was happy to see the council was looking for ways to strengthen the code of conduct.

He wasn’t happy that the mayor would appoint all the members and that they would serve at the pleasure of the mayor, however. He cited the commission Gov. Andrew Cuomo appointed a few years ago and the trouble that ensued.

Splitting the appointments between the mayor and council would be a good idea, he said.

“In the end it’s up to you,” he told the councilors. “But please do not create a new Moreland Commission in Oswego, one controlled entirely by the mayor and therefore unable to act independently. To do so would further erode public trust.”

Caraccioli said he doesn’t see that as a concern in Oswego. The Port City, he said, doesn’t have the same issues as Albany faced.

This board as proposed would consist of three members; the majority shall not be officers or employees of the city. The third member would be an officer, he explained.

The board would render advisory opinions.

“Between the executive branch and legislative branch of this particular government, there is a fair amount of interplay with respect not only to the creation of the board of ethics, the composition of it and the actual work that board would do,” Caraccioli said. “I think there’s a fair amount of oversight between the executive and legislative branch.”

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