NORWICH – It’s a good thing Chenango County’s 23 lawmakers created an ethics commission during a meeting of the full board this month instead of leaving the task to be taken up at last Wednesday’s meeting of the Safety & Rules Committee.
There wouldn’t have been a quorum.
Board of Supervisor Chairman Richard B. Decker, R-N.Norwich, called for a motion to appoint a three-person commission before the full board on Nov. 9, in effect pre-empting Safety & Rules from the task. He did so, however, only to counter a motion made by Town of Smyrna Supervisor James Bays.
Decker said at that time he would have preferred that Safety & Rules address the issue in its regularly scheduled monthly meeting.
Chenango County government has operated without an ethics commission for several years despite New York state mandates that require one. The county is currently being audited by the state as a result. The recent confusion regarding a contract to hire a consultant who would help spur on economic development from future natural gas development has brought the matter to the forefront.
Bays’ motion recommended a different roster of names to serve on a commission, but died for a lack of a second after Decker proposed his own. Bays said Thursday morning that he found it “predictable” that there would be a lack of a quorum at Safety & Rules.
“They’ve been dragging their feet on this (creating an ethics commission) for a long time,” he said.
Bays said he didn’t mind how the lack of a second for his motion made him appear in the public’s eye. “I raise issues and ask questions all of the time, but if it gets something done, then it’s worth it,” he said. Smyrna is already home to more than a dozen drilled wells, most of them aready in production. “We really need to get going on this,” he said.
Town of New Berlin Supervisor Ross P. Iannello said that the issue of an ethics committee has “come up time to time over the years and the powers that be don’t seem to want (it).”
After Chairman Decker’s recommendation was put into a motion, seconded and passed by the board, Iannello followed with one that called for the newly formed ethics commission to meet and report back to the full board in December with a decision about hiring the consultant.
At a meeting of the Planning & Economic development Committee, Iannello requested that the commission interview members of the Chenango County Natural Gas and Planning committees for input before making their decision. Both are in full support of hiring Preston businessman Steven Palmatier, as was the full board of supervisors earlier this fall when a resolution to hire the individual passed. Palmatier is a member of the Chenango County Natural Gas Committee and Commerce Chenango Governmental Affairs Committee. He has been working over the past several months without a contract to connect the Chamber and the business and educational leaders in the county with natural gas companies and trade associations.
Since then, County Attorney Richard Breslin has determined that Palmatier has a perceived conflict of interest. Attorneys for the consultant and Breslin have been unable to reach agreement on specific verbage in the contract.
The resolution previously adopted to hire Palmatier contained a stipulation that required the county attorney’s approval.
Town of Norwich Supervisor David C. Law and Town of Columbus Supervisor George G. Coates did not attend last week’s meeting of Safety & Rules because they were attending a previously scheduled economic development meeting at the Commerce Chenango in the Eaton Center.