The East Hampton Town Board considered three changes to its code of ethics last month. Two of the three sailed by an April 17 public hearing, but the third was not supported by the town’s seven-person board of ethics, represented by its longtime chairman, Hugh King.
At present, elected officials and employees of the town are not allowed to accept a ticket to an event that is priced at over $75. Rob Connelly, then the town attorney, had suggested that the town amend the code to allow its officers and employees to accept such tickets no matter what the value, and further allow them to accept one complimentary ticket for a guest. The amendment would bring the town in line with New York City law, which allows officeholders to take a guest. (New York State law does not.)
“The board of ethics agrees that board members and other municipal employees should be allowed to accept a complimentary ticket to an event, regardless of price, as long as the attendance is part of their official governmental duties,” Mr. King told the board. “However, spouses, significant others, or guests, who are not governmental employees should not be allowed a complimentary ticket, as they are not performing a governmental duty.”
“Unless I’m wrong,” Mr. Connelly said on April 1 when proposing the amendment, “None of you are titans of capitalism, so you can’t all just write checks for, you know, $2,500 to attend an event.”
At that same meeting, Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, who guessed that the majority of ticket prices for events she attends are around $250, expressed support for the change.
“In my experience, there have been weekends where I have attended nine events, from Friday night to Sunday night,” she told her colleagues. “If I didn’t bring my spouse or an adult child with me, I wouldn’t see my family.”
“I don’t think that it compromises our position on something,” she continued. “Any time we want to give grant funding to any organization it goes through a number of work sessions. It goes out for public hearing. So, I don’t see the nexus, and sometimes I think my spouse is more popular than I am when I go to an event.”
She said it was important for her to attend events to show town support for various groups, such as historical societies, food pantries, child care centers, and domestic violence shelters.
“It’s slightly problematic, this one, for me,” said Councilman Tom Flight. He thought the ticket price should be raised from $75, but capped. “I would be uncomfortable if you’re talking about a $2,500 ticket to something.” He suggested making it a budget item. “The supervisor is expected to go to this many events, and the line item could be monitored and recorded.”
“I don’t feel comfortable using taxpayer money for this,” said Councilwoman Cate Rogers.
Councilman Ian Calder-Piedmonte said he understood Mr. Flight’s concerns but noted that ticket prices are often inflated because they’re for fund-raisers. “If there’s a $2,000 ticket to support a food pantry, it’s to raise money, not because people are getting that much value out of it.”
“Just so you know, the food pantries aren’t charging $2,000 a ticket,” said Ms. Burke-Gonzalez.
The other two changes received less attention. Two new committees that are charged with handing out financial awards, the water quality technical advisory committee and the community housing advisory board, will be subject to the code of ethics once the amendments pass.
Finally, if an employee is subject to a decision by the board of ethics, that judgement would be published and placed in the employee’s file. Previously, the judgement was confidential and unpublished, so the town board had no way of knowing if an employee had misbehaved.
The ethics legislation, despite having already had a public hearing, will not be voted on at tonight’s town board meeting, according to Patrick Derenze, the town’s public information officer. Based on Mr. King’s criticism, there may be changes to the proposed amendment, Mr. Derenze said. That is “still being determined.”
