White Plains, NY – Westchester Legislator Ben Boykin (D-White Plains), chair of the Westchester County Board of Legislators (BOL) Appointments Committee, denounced the actions of County Executive Rob Astorino’s Ethics Board today, and called for a complete overhaul of the Ethics Board, which appears to be completely dysfunctional at this point.

Legislator Boykin noted that his “tipping point” with the County Ethics Board was reached when he discovered that the July 16, 2014 meeting of the board, hastily convened in response to a report that County Executive Astorino was earning $30,000 as an outside consultant, included attendance and voting by an individual who has never been officially or even informally appointed to the board.

Josh Mandell, the former mayor of Larchmont and a political ally of Astorino’s who has donated $6,500 to the County Executive’s campaign coffers, voted at the recent Ethics Board meetings despite the fact that he has never been appointed officially to the board.

Mandell sat with the board and voted on July 16 to re-hire Steve Leventhal to conduct the annual ethics reviews of County officers, with nearly seven months of the year already elapsed. Last year, Leventhal did not conduct these reviews, admitted Dennis Kremer, chair of Astorino’s Ethics Board, in a recent newspaper report.

“I am outraged by the fact that an insider pal of the County Executive’s can walk off the street and act as a de facto member of a County board charged with crucial oversight responsibilities, and cast a vote,” said Boykin. “This takes the cake. I am now thoroughly convinced that this entire Board needs to be swept clean. For the Astorino Ethics Board to provide the proper function of safeguarding our County governance from conflicts of interest, we need to start from the beginning and bring in a group of new board members.”

The County Ethics Board is supposed to have seven members, with no more than four representing the same political party.

“Clearly, County Executive Astorino is not interested in even a halfway functioning Ethics Board, which is downright shameful” said Boykin. “The Board needs seven fully participating members to meet its responsibilities. Otherwise, Westchester residents and business owners are not being properly served.”

Boykin also suggested that the Ethics Board begin posting a meeting schedule for the rest of the year, along with agendas when completed. Minutes of the meetings should also be posted.

“It’s time for the Ethics Board to start operating in the daylight of true governmental transparency,” said Boykin,  “and with legally appointed and confirmed members only.”