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Opinions are mixed whether or not city and state laws and guidelines when city employees received small ARPA-funded home repair grants.
An ethics expert who spoke with The Post-Journal and WRFA-LP says no state laws were broken despite a longstanding city practice against allowing city employees to access city-funded grant programs. At the very least, it appears the seven city employees should have adhered to Section 803 of the state General Municipal Law, which states any municipal employee who acquires an interest or whose spouse has an interest in contracts with the municipality has to publicly disclose the nature and extent of the interest in writing to the immediate supervisor and governing body as soon as the interest is known. That doesn't appear to have happened in this case.
Even further, there appear to have been conflicts with Jamestown's own ethics policy found in Chapter 21 of the City Code. City Code Section 21-3, paragraph c, states "They shall not receive or enter into any agreement, express or implied, for compensation for services to be rendered in relation to any matter before any municipal agency of which they are an officer, member or employee ..." Paragraph E further states, Disclosure of interest in legislation. To the extent that they know thereof, a member of the Council and any officer or employee of the City of Jamestown, whether paid or unpaid, who participates in the discussion or gives official opinion to the Council on any legislation before the Council shall publicly disclose on the official record the nature and extent of any direct or indirect financial or other private interest they have in such legislation." Penalties include a fine, suspension or termination.
What's noteworthy is this is the second time there has been an ethical conundrum facing the city government or one of its arms this year after questions were raised about JLDC loans to entities involving JLDC board members or their families earlier this year. What's troubling is no one thought to ask before taking action in either case.
Laws may not have been broken, but appearances are troubling. In our view, nothing undermines the citizens' trust in government than the appearance of politicians or municipal employees using their relationships to help themselves or their friends.
In our view, it's time for the City Council and administration to seriously consider an ethics board for Jamestown to make local recommendations on matters such as the JLDC loans or the grants to city employees. An ethics board isn't a panacea if it isn't composed of the right people. Look no further than the state's ethics boards for proof of that. But at a local level, if created the right way to be independent of politics, an ethics board could have some use on an as-needed basis.
Jamestown isn't required to have an ethics board. But if there is no ethics board, then the ethics policy in the Section 21 of the City Code is essentially useless.