Yorktown Hires Special Counsel to Investigate Ethics Board Confidentiality Breech

The Town Board has appointed a special counsel to investigate the unauthorized disclosure of confidential Ethics Board records.

William P. Harrington of Bleakley Platt & Schmidt in White Plains has been retained to investigate and report on the circumstances that led to the disclosure of a Town Ethics Board Recommendation. He will also review how the Ethics Board conducts its investigations and provide recommendations to enhance the Town’s ethics code.

Supervisor Matt Slater said the purpose of Harrington’s appointment is to restore public trust.

“That confidence has been eroded completely—not just from this one incident—but from several of the past incidents,” said Supervisor Slater. “We need to restore that confidence and the right way to do it is to bring in someone from the outside who has experience in this.”

Harrington is a trial attorney who has represented Fortune 500 companies in criminal, commercial, environmental, civil rights, real estate, gaming and employment discrimination matters. Harrington represents municipalities in all phases of land use development and related litigation. Harrington also has extensive experience in handling ethics cases involving public officials.

Councilwoman Alice Roker said the Harrington appointment and his review of the ethics code should serve as a reminder to volunteers of their responsibilities and permitted conduct while serving on various Town boards.

“A lot of people say ‘Well, I didn’t know about that,’” said Councilwoman Roker. “One of the things that we talked about was that when we hire people, everybody should be presented with the code.”

Councilman Tom Diana said that an investigation is mandatory.

“There have been at least three incidents since I’ve sat on this Town Board that we have had investigations on. This ethics code isn’t working, or it’s not understood,” said Councilman Diana.

Supervisor Slater has said that the Town Board must seriously defend its duty to protect confidential investigations undertaken by the Town's Ethics Board so that they are not contaminated or undermined.

“Anyone found to have violated the protocols set forth by Town policy will be held fully accountable,” said Supervisor Slater.

Yorktown’s Town attorney, Adam Rodriguez, is a partner at Bleakley Platt & Schmidt.