ROGOWSKY WINS SUPPORT FOR SIMPLER FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE FORM FOR MOST COUNTY VOLUNTEERS
Current long form retained for paid positions but shorter, less burdensome disclosure form adopted for most volunteer bodies; ethics expert hails new form as statewide model
COMMITTEE NEWS RELEASE
July 9, 2007
Contact: Steve Bass, Committee Coordinator, Tel: (914) 995-5482
At today’s meeting, in a bi-partisan show of support, the County Board of Legislators unanimously approved the use of a shorter, more streamlined financial disclosure form for the limited purpose of screening volunteers to many of the county’s important citizen advisory boards.
“It’s important to note that we have not lowered the ethics bar,” said County Legislator Vito Pinto D-IN-WF, Eastchester), Chair of the Legislation Committee. “We adopted a simpler financial disclosure form, that’s all. We ensured that it’s rigorous and comprehensive enough to determine if an advisory board candidate has a conflict of interest that would disqualify him or her from taking a certain position.”
Pinto said the long form which runs about seventeen pages has been often cited by legal ethics experts as overkill and out of proportion with what information is really needed to determine if a conflict of interest actually exists in certain volunteer positions. The simpler form which runs about three pages can only be used to screen candidates for positions specifically delineated by the Legislation Committee. Paid county staff, elected and appointed officials will still be required to complete the long form on a yearly basis.
County Legislator Martin Rogowsky (D-IN-WF,Harrison), Majority Leader and sponsor of the legislation, started researching a more streamlined form when he was chair of the Legislation Committee last year. He said that since 1989 when the current form was first introduced, there’s been an undercurrent of criticism that the disclosure form was excessive for certain volunteer positions. It discouraged very capable people from volunteering for service on a county board.
“The function of a financial disclosure form must be to uncover any conflicts of interest. That remains our priority,” said Rogowsky. “It’s a balancing act. We want to attract the best candidates and assess whether there is a conflict of interest without intruding unnecessarily on a candidate’s privacy. With the short form, we’re able to balance these competing interests. Going forward, serving the public by donating one’s time and expertise won’t mean a total surrender of one’s private life to public scrutiny.”
Rogowsky said he sought the input of the County Attorney, ethics experts as well as those inside Westchester County government to help determine what level of disclosure was both appropriate and proportionate to the position a volunteer was being asked to fill.
Mark Davies, Executive Director of the NYC Conflicts of Interests Board, is just one of the many legal ethics experts who contributed to the development of the shorter form. “I commend the Board for taking on a problem confronting most municipalities. The conflict of interest laws were enacted to preserve the public trust and promote public confidence in government. But early developers of ethics rules failed at first to perceive that not all positions, especially volunteer positions, called for the same degree of exhaustive background and personal inquiry. I believe that the short form the Westchester legislature adopted today could be a statewide model for other municipalities wrestling with this same problem.”
Rogowsky remembered and thanked Ed Gibbs, former Chair of the County’s Ethics Board, Executive Director of the County’s Public Utility Service Agency and a former county legislator, who passed away just last week, for the important role he played in raising awareness that a new shorter form was needed because too many good and qualified people were deterred from volunteering. He said he shared Gibbs’ assessment that it was ironic that the county’s ethics policy, designed to encourage better government, was working against that goal with respect to volunteers.
In tribute to Gibbs, Rogowsky said the short form in his mind will be forever known as the “Gibbs Form.”
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