Two members of the Shelton Board of Ethics need to be reappointed, after a political party snafu this week.
Byron Peterson, an existing Republican member of the board, recently changed his party affiliation to Unaffiliated after Bronislaw (Ben) Winnick, another Republican, was appointed to the board in June.
Under the city’s charter, the Board of Ethics is required to have one Democrat, one Republican and one Unaffiliated member.
The issue came up Monday (Dec. 19), when Chairman Maria Davis, a Democrat, raised concerns about the switch.
Davis’s concerns are outlined in the minutes of the meeting, posted at the end of this article. A call seeking comment from Davis was not returned Thursday.
“I am concerned that these events may be viewed by some as a violation, if not outright, at least in the spirit of the Code of Ethics and the City Charter,” Davis said, reading from a letter she sent to the city’s attorney.
“At some point, I believe I will be questioned on these events,” Davis said, according to the minutes. “Therefore, I would like to have legal documentation that all procedures and policies were followed and that no violations by any party involved, ethical or otherwise, occurred.”
Davis said she found out about the party change after Board of Aldermen President John Anglace announced it at a Dec. 8 Board of Aldermen meeting.
“Mistakes Happen”
Anglace, on Friday, said that the Board of Aldermen made a mistake in confirming Winnick without checking to see if there was already a Republican member on the Board of Ethics.
“Mistakes happen,” Anglace said. “We have a registrar of voters on the board and even he didn’t pick it up. It’s everybody’s responsibility to check these things out. We’re the confirming authority. And we missed it. I’m not blaming anybody. We’ve just got to correct what we did wrong.”
Anglace said he didn’t think there was any problem with having Peterson change his party affiliation to unaffiliated in order to keep Winnick on the board.
“One of the things brought out at the meeting was does that disenfranchise all the unaffiliated voters,” Anglace said. “I don’t think so. An unaffiliated can come in and register as a Democrat and vote in a primary.”
In short: anyone can change their party when they want to, Anglace said.
Marty Coughlin, one of the citizen consultants on the board, disagreed, according to the meeting minutes.
“Because Mr. Peterson has decided to switch from Republican to Unaffiliated does not really make him Unaffiliated,” Coughlin said, according to the minutes. “Technically he fulfills the law. He has changed. But in doing so, in my opinion, he has disenfranchised every Unaffiliated voter in this city.”
Background
The need for re-appointment slows down an already slow process to get the city’s ethics ordinance reworked. Some say the changes are needed to set guidelines for public officials and employees on accepting gifts, disclosing information about business ties and using city equipment.
Last year, after a series of marathon meetings and a public hearing on a new ordinance, the Board of Aldermen rejected the ordinance proposal “without prejudice.” That means they could use some elements of the original proposal in trying to draft a new one.
The Board of Ethics has again started working with members of the Board of Aldermen and two citizen consultants to rework the city’s ethics ordinance. The group is an ad-hoc committee of the Board of Aldermen.
That ad-hoc committee was scheduled to meet Dec. 19 to hash out ideas for another proposed ordinance.
But that never happened.
Party Change
Instead, the committee talked about the political party change — and decided to postpone any discussion on the ethics ordinance until Winnick and Peterson are re-appointed.
That was the advice of the city’s attorney, after Davis and Anglace separately asked for an opinion on the matter.
For the reappointments to happen, Mayor Mark Lauretti would need to reappoint both members, and then the Board of Aldermen would need to confirm the appointments.