DELMAR — Highway Superintendent Marc Dorsey called a recent complaint reviewed by the town’s ethics board “a political hit job.”
The town’s Ethics Board investigated and made a determination following a complaint against Dorsey for services he had allegedly received. According to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter, he had contractors transport soil and fill and deposit it upon his personal property.
Town Board members met in executive session on Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 13 to obtain legal advice and to discuss personnel matters. The special meeting called by Town Supervisor David VanLuven followed an assembly of the town’s Ethics Board a week before.
Dorsey shared with Spotlight Newspapers how he explained to the Ethics Board that he receives clean fill on his land, and has held a permit to do so for the last five years. The fill is “valueless” he said, otherwise the contractors who dump it would sell it on the open market.
“If this was a real problem, it would have been brought up when I was first elected in 2019,” Dorsey shared in a statement. “Instead, this is being used as a political hit job two weeks before an election.
“The people of Bethlehem know what is clean fill and know when someone is just nastily throwing dirt,” he added. “This is dirty politics. They also know the work my department has done in the last two years has vastly improved the quality of life in town — from paving roads to installing sidewalks to creating a state-of-the-art compost facility.”
The Town Board may take action based on that determination once it meets again on Wednesday, Oct. 27, but VanLuven would not confirm.
“We haven’t discussed it yet and so I can’t put a timetable on what we’re going to do until I hear from the full board,” VanLuven said.
This is believed to be the first determination by the Ethics Board. Through a FOIL request, the Town stated that the board had not presented one in the previous three years. A review of its meeting minutes revealed it had never shared a judgment with the Town Board since it was established in 2013.
Ethics Board Chairperson Michael Hutter Jr. initially called the Oct. 7 meeting into executive session without cause. Once challenged by Spotlight Newspapers, he explained that it involved “special matters” — not among the legitimate reasons listed under state Open Meeting Law. The meeting continued in private under protest.
Bethlehem’s Code of Ethics is “intended to enhance public confidence and respect in the integrity of Town government,” according to the Ethics Board’s website. It is also to establish standards by which town officers and employees are to be measured.
The Ethics Board meets sporadically; only when it receives a complaint or as the five-person board prepares its annual report to the Town Board. The board, comprised of town residents appointed by the Town Board, provides advice upon request. It also investigates sworn complaints and makes recommendations to the Town Board regarding how to address them.
When the board meets, those meetings are called into action at 8 a.m. or before. Deliberations are often held outside of public view in an executive session. Public Meeting Law allows such private meetings to occur for a finite number of reasons. Conversation details are not permitted to be shared. If there is a vote, the result is shared but commonly little else.
There are conflicting views surrounding what information is available to the public after an ethics board reviews a complaint. Nanci Moquin, Bethlehem’s town clerk and FOIL officer, stated that determinations can be withheld as interdepartmental communications. Jake Forken of the state Committee on Open Government said ethics board records are “generally” available under FOIL, with exceptions that include unwarranted invasion of privacy, and disclosure that could lead to personal or economic hardship. Spotlight Newspapers has requested to receive the determination under FOIL and the Town is permitted to respond by Nov. 19.
In 2016, the Ethics Board was more forthcoming with details involving a complaint against then-Bethlehem Planning Board Chairperson John Smolinsky over his handling of a proposal that was to impact residents on Fieldstone Drive in Delmar. After several meetings, the Ethics Board voted to dismiss the complaint because it did not allege a violation of the town’s Ethics Code.
Dorsey is running for re-election and will again appear on the Nov. 2 ballot as a Democrat.
The Town Board is comprised of four Democrats and one Republican, so any action to move forward has to come from the majority of the board. The next meeting of the Town Board will be Wednesday, Oct. 27, six days before the election.