For the second time, Democrats on North Hempstead’s Town Board blocked seven nominations by Republican Supervisor Jennifer DeSena to the town’s Board of Ethics Thursday night.
DeSena’s recommendations included Westbury/New Cassel NAACP President Robin Bolling; Derek Chan, president of Greater Hudson Financial; The Islamic Center of Long Island Chair Isma Chaudry; Chabad of Mineola Rabbi Anchelle Perl; Robert Reilly, former assistant dean at Fordham University’s School of Law; Melissa Slobin, speech language pathologist for Manhasset Public Schools; and Francisco Vazquez, senior counsel to Norton Rose Fullbright.
Town Board Councilman Robert Troiano said there were procedures going on behind the scenes at town hall that need to be sorted out before the members can officially be appointed.
The seven-member Board of Ethics is responsible for implementing the provisions of the Town’s Code of Ethics, according to the town’s websites.
Its responsibilities include approving and reviewing financial statements, rendering advisory opinions to town employees on the Code of Ethics and enforcing the code while determining penalties, among other things.
“There’s been discussion in town hall about the terms that each of the appointees would be slotted into. it’s my understanding that staff is still working on that,” Troiano said. “So I consider the presentation of the resolutions as being premature until that is worked out with staff. And so I need to abstain.”
“Resolution” is the technical term for what appears on the agenda. There were 60 resolutions that required action from the Town Board (accepting bids, town business, etc.). Seven of those “resolutions” involved the appointments to the Town Board of Ethics.
Fellow Democrats Peter Zuckerman, Veronica Luvey and Mariann Dalimonte, who make up the four-person majority on the seven-person Town Board, followed Troiano by abstaining from each of the seven recommendations.
DeSena was joined by Republican Town Councilmembers David Adhami and Dennis Walsh in voting for the seven appointments.
As they had in February, each Democrat said the abstentions had nothing to do with the merits of the individuals and that they were just waiting until town hall gets its proceedings in order.
“It’s clear that there’s no independent thought being put into the votes,” DeSena said during one of the resolutions.
In February, former Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss and LIU Associate Professor Qiping Zhang were nominated by DeSena, but they have been switched out for Bolling and Slobin. The other five remain the same.
Only Chaudry is a holdover from the administration of Judi Bosworth, who decided not to run in 2021. Each appointee will serve a four-year term.
DeSena stressed the importance of appointing new board members to four-year terms that would put them outside of possible influence from Town Board members.
The seven current Ethics Board members are currently operating on expired terms and can be removed at any time through a majority vote from the board.
“Having a truly independent Board of Ethics who are capable of exercising meaningful oversight is crucial to prevent conflicts of interest and misdeeds,” DeSena said. “It’s equally important that these members serve in guaranteed terms independent and autonomous of the outside influence of town board.”
In February, Town Board Democrats abstained from voting while saying the selections were not representative of the town’s geographical diversity and that they did not receive resumes on DeSena’s picks shortly before that month’s meeting.
DeSena said she has taken into consideration the suggestions from fellow board members and believes this group represents the town geographically, religiously, ethnically and gender-wise.
Resolutions for the Board of Ethics appointments can be made at the May 19 meeting.
