By Stephanie Mariel Petrellese

The Village of Garden City's Board of Ethics will consider whether the Village's Code of Ethics should be changed to prohibit a volunteer serving on one Village board from appearing before any other Village board. The BOE will deliberate and issue a non-binding recommendation to the Garden City Board of Trustees. No deadline was set but Mayor Peter Bee said the BOE will work "with all deliberate speed."

The Board of Trustees voted 7 to 1 in favor of turning the thorny matter over to the BOE during the BOT's Jan. 8th meeting. Trustee Thomas Lamberti, who had placed a resolution on the meeting agenda to have the BOT direct Village Counsel to amend the code, was against seeking the BOE's opinion. He claimed the three members of the BOE have no special knowledge that would enable them to make a recommendation in this matter and accused fellow trustees of using it as "a neat device to duck responsibility."

The Board of Ethics is chaired by Village Justice Allen Mathers, and its members include residents Charles P. Menges, Jr. and Maureen E. Clancy. The Village's Code of Ethics, adopted in December of 1970, is pursuant to the state's General Municipal Law.

The issue initially surfaced at the Dec. 4th meeting of the Board of Trustees when trustees were asked to approve the appointment of several residents to Village boards, including architect and Garden City resident Barbara Maiello Ruggiero to the Architectural Design Review Board. Robert Cunningham, chairman of the Village's Zoning Board of Appeals, questioned her appointment because she has appeared on behalf of clients before his board 30 to 40 times. He claimed there would be a possible conflict of interest if she was appointed to the ADRB and was allowed to continue to go before the other Village boards.

The Board of Trustees approved her appointment on Dec. 4th with a 5 to 3 vote. Trustees Lamberti, John Watras and Donald Brudie voted against the item.

According to Village Counsel Gerard Fishberg, under the current Ethics Code, a person appointed to a Village board cannot appear before that board. However, they can appear before other Village boards if they charge their client a flat fee or hourly fee. They cannot appear before another board on a contingency basis.

Deputy Mayor John Mauk, who serves on the vacancy committee, argued that it is difficult enough to fill vacancies on Village boards. His committee looks to the property owners' associations and the Joint Conference Committee of property owners' associations to interview candidates and make recommendations. The vacancy committee then interviews their recommendation. Trustees Gerard Lundquist and Nicholas Episcopia also serve on the vacancy committee.

Mauk explained that three Village boards recently had vacancies. For two boards, there was only one applicant. For the ADRB position, even though there were three applicants, only Ruggiero was recommended by the JCC. She also had a letter of recommendation from Harry E. VanMeter, chairman of the ADRB. Therefore, the vacancy committee only interviewed her for the position.

"I think that the decision of the committee in recommending Ms. Ruggiero was very appropriate," Mauk said. "I think that the issue of her potential conflict was certainly considered and addressed and was decided by the Board that this was not something that created a problem. We look for people who have experience and who have backgrounds in many of these areas because we need their professional experience in order to be able to accurately perform some of the jobs that we ask them to do. So I think we need to be very cautious before we start placing restrictions on what sort of people we are going to be willing to accept to come on some of these committees."

Trustee Episcopia said there is no reason why Ruggiero won't be able to make an objective decision. "We have to respect the recommendations of the Joint Conference," he said. "That is the purpose of the system."

Trustee Lamberti said he was "astonished" that the other two applicants were not interviewed by the vacancy committee. He claimed they were all qualified and one applicant does not appear before other Garden City boards, which would eliminate any possible conflict of interest.

"We as a government have to follow a process. We have to be due diligent," he said. "If I have done nothing over the last three years, I have been consistent on that. More often than not, I have been disregarded, which is OK. This appointment to me was flawed because it wasn't conducted in a manner in which it should have been done. There's no excuse for that."

Mauk disputed Lamberti's claims that there was no due diligence and said deference should be given to the chairman of the ADRB, who recommended Ruggiero.

Attempts to reach Ruggiero were unsuccessful as of press time.