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North Castle ethics board reports no complaints, offers confidential advisory opinions
Summary
Sue Shimer, chair of North Castle's ethics board, told the town board the panel received no complaints and conducted no investigations in the past year but continues to provide confidential advisory opinions and is open to improvements to the code.
Sue Shimer, chair of the Town of North Castle ethics board, presented the board’s annual report at the June 24 meeting and said the panel received no complaints and conducted no investigations in the past year.
Shimer said board members had fielded questions about the applicability of the code of ethics to specific situations and emphasized that advisory opinions are confidential; if a person follows the board’s written advisory opinion they cannot be charged with a violation. She invited members of boards, committees and town employees to request advisory opinions when unclear about the ethics code and said the ethics board would welcome the town board considering improvements to the code.
Shimer said she found a discrepancy in the ethics code during recent review and plans to discuss it at the next ethics-board meeting and, if appropriate, confer with the town attorney to propose clarifying amendments. The town attorney’s office said it remains available to assist the ethics board when needed.
What’s next: the ethics board will meet as needed and can provide advisory opinions; the chairman will follow up with the ethics board and the town attorney on a code discrepancy.
