Rye Mayor, Council Members Have Dropped Lawsuit Against Ethics Board

RYE, NY — It appears for now that a sometimes bitter dispute inside of city government will be settled without a potentially costly courtroom battle.

In a joint statement issued by Rye City Councilmembers Carolina Johnson, Julie Souza and Ben Stacks, and Mayor Josh Cohn, the local lawmakers said they felt that they were left with little choice but to seek legal remedy when they filed suit in June. However, they added that a recent opinion issued by New York Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials (NYCOM) has helped to convince them that a path of working towards reforms is more important than addressing past wrongs they have suffered.

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"As volunteer City Council Members and Mayor of the City of Rye who have sacrificed countless hours for the good of our community, we find ourselves in a necessary but increasingly awkward and undesirable position: legally challenging an opinion of the volunteer board of ethics in order to clear our names," elected officials said. "This recourse was not remotely our first choice of action, but this misguided and misinformed opinion – leaked publicly – is so factually wrong, misrepresentative of the truth and procedurally untethered that we had no choice but to try to call out a deeply flawed process, restore our credibility, and protect and encourage future volunteer officials."

Cohn and the council members filed the suit against the city's Board of Ethics after the panel issued an opinion that the four local lawmakers violated the city code of ethics.

In a case filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, the four sued the City of Rye Board of Ethics, accusing that board of overstepping its authority.

The petitioners were "seeking an Order and Judgment holding that the Board of Ethics acted in excess of its jurisdiction; its determination to proceed was affected by errors of law, was an abuse of discretion, was irrational and arbitrary and capricious; it is proceeding in violation of lawful procedure; and it has denied Petitioners due process in violation of the United States Constitution and the Constitution of the State of New York."

The Board of Ethics conducted an investigation and issued a non-confidential finding that limits council members to vote on issues regarding a so-called tree moratorium. The board's opinion said that the lawmakers' actions gave an appearance of a conflict of interest.

In the suit, lawmakers disputed both the premise of the investigation and the ethics board's findings.

The council members said that while they felt strongly that they would prevail in court, their goal of protecting the workings of the city government would be better served by addressing the root causes of the impasse.

"We are confident we would win in the court of law," the four elected officials said. "Our guide and counsel, Karl J. Sleight, is the former Executive Director of the NY State Ethics Commission and, in addition, after consultation, the New York Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials (NYCOM) ethics guidance is consistent with our position. However, after weeks of discussion, we have decided to withdraw our lawsuit and instead pursue a different path to find a long-term solution and ensure this deeply broken process cannot happen again. Why? Because our counsel’s review (and our litigation papers) and the NYCOM concurrence have taken us past the shock of our own mistreatment to an understanding that Rye’s Code of Ethics and Board of Ethics must have a holistic review beyond that which a court reviewing one wrong decision is likely to provide."

While stopping short of declaring victory, Cohn, Johnson, Souza and Stacks said that having been vindicated by the NYCOM guidance, it was time to look into preventing similar unfair practices in the future.

"As our attorney, Karl Sleight, puts it: 'My clients have reconfirmed (through NYCOM) that their ethics concerns at issue in the litigation were meritorious," the statement continued. "Although the end of the litigation means a legal answer to a legal question will not occur, a more important victory is had. Rye will start down the path of updating and improving their Code of Ethics, which will benefit everyone in the city.'"

While the mayor and council members insisted that they initially took legal action to protect their reputations from what became a public and political process rather than impartial and confidential process prescribed by the city charter, they say that the attention that has since been shined on the way the ethics dispute was handled has made clear that they acted appropriately.

"This has been an immensely painful and frustrating time for all of us and our families," the statement concluded. "We did not choose this fight. Nor do we believe what has transpired since February in this regard has helped anyone, especially our community that looks to us to help solve issues, not create new ones. We hope - and expect - our city council colleagues will join us in moving forward with civility to find common ground and better solutions for our community."