City Councilman Bob Bialkowski insists that he will not recuse himself "at this time" from a vote by council to purchase a new sign for the mall, where his wife works as mall manager.
"I really can't," he said. "I have no financial interest. Our charter has said no one can recuse themselves unless they have a direct financial interest. It's in the charter. I have no interest. My wife has no financial interest."
At the council meeting on July 14, Bialkowski was asked by Council President Charlie Mallow to recuse himself from the vote as the purchase of the sign by the city would benefit the mall merchants financially and thus Bialkowski by association. Those comments were followed up by a letter sent yesterday by City Attorney George Van Nest requesting the Batavia Board of Ethics to convene regarding a conflict of interest of a certain "councilman" whose "wife is manager of the mall" regarding that very same vote.
Bialkowski spurns those claims.
He says his wife is only an "hourly employee" of the mall and stands to see no gain from the installation of a sign advertising mall shops. Further, she is not on any board and does not meet with the Mall Merchants Association, the group requesting the sign.
More than all that, he said, "we don't have a Board of Ethics, at least we didn't the last time I knew."
The Batavian called Mallow to find out more information about the Board of Ethics. We are waiting for him to return our call. We could not find a listing of the members of such a board on the city Web site. But we did find the following in the City Code:
There is hereby established a Board of Ethics consisting of six members to be appointed by the Council and who shall serve without compensation for a term of five years each, with the initial terms to be staggered so that one member shall be appointed or reappointed each year, with the exception of the fifth year when two members shall be appointed. All members shall be residents of the City of Batavia, except that no member may be an officer or employee of the City of Batavia.
The Board of Ethics shall have the powers and duties prescribed by Article 18 of the General Municipal Law and shall render advisory opinions to the officers and employees of the City of Batavia with respect to Article 18 of the General Municipal Law and the Code of Ethics contained in Article I of this chapter, under such rules and regulations as the Board may prescribe. In addition, the Board may make recommendations with respect to the drafting and adoption of the Code of Ethics or amendments thereto upon request of the Council of the City of Batavia.
We will post more information as it becomes available.
Check out our earlier post for more information and background.
Philip, let me try to answer
Philip, let me try to answer your questions you left me on the phone.
Does the city have an ethics board?
It does but, council didn’t fill two of the positions last year. I don’t like this whole idea of talking about getting a board together to tell us something we already know. Bob should just do the right thing and not vote on this issue, this is a distraction and puts all of council in a bad light.
Why did or how did the attorney decide to do this?
From what I have heard right after our meeting, the City Attorney told the paper that it was his obligation to look into the matter. I also didn’t pick this issue out of thin air during the last council meeting. It was brought to my attention that I should consider asking Bob not to vote or speak on this issue because; there was a belief that it would constitute a conflict of interest. The last thing I wanted to do was ask him to step aside on this vote but, since he didn’t see the obvious conflict, I didn’t have a choice.
Bob, How can you say she does
Bob,
How can you say she does not meet with the MMA? She is at every meeting they have. She does all the leg work for the meetings (and does it very well). Her name is on the minutes of every meeting. They employ her and you say she never meets with them? Was she not at the meeting where the MMA voted to take possible legal action against the city? Wasn't Council's rep. there also?
Maybe you can clear this up real fast.
Bob, setting aside any
Bob, setting aside any discussion of the letter of the law, would you like to discuss appearances?
Bob, Still waiting for you
Bob,
Still waiting for you to explain your posted statement that your wife, the Mall manager, does not meet with the people who she works for and pay her. I want you to explain this since her name is on the minutes of their meetings.
Did you mean something different? Or is your statement just not true?