The Town of New Scotland has set a date to hear arguments regarding a potential violation of the town ethics code by a member of the Commercial Zone Advisory Committee.
Town Supervisor Tom Dolin said the town will hold a meeting Wednesday, Oct. 29, to discuss ethics questions surrounding Commercial Zone Advisory Committee member Liz Kormos.
Kormos has been cited as having a conflict of interest in her role on the committee to draft new language for the town’s zoning laws because she once acted as a consultant for a prospective buyer of the Bender melon farm, the site of a proposed development that has resulted in a temporary retail building moratorium.
CZAC Chairwoman Roz Robinson drafted the formal conflict-of-interest allegations, Dolin said.
In addition to her committee seat, Kormos is also a member of New Scotlanders for Sound Economic Development, known as NS4SED, and a supporter of a 50,000-square-foot size cap on retail developments in the town of New Scotland.
A temporary moratorium on new retail buildings larger than 30,000 square feet has been in place since May to allow officials, through recommendations by CZAC, to draft zoning laws that better coincide with the town’s comprehensive plan. The moratorium was enacted in response to a commercial development proposed by Syracuse-based Sphere on the Bender melon farm property that would include a 137,000-square-foot anchor store.
Peter Lauricella, Kormos’ attorney, said Kormos has not yet decided if she will waive her right to confidentiality at the Oct. 29 hearing. He said all ethics hearings are confidential unless the subject chooses to waive that right.
He also said there is some confusion about statements Kormos previously made about waiving her right to confidentiality regarding the matter.
`She never had any confidentiality to waive,` Lauricella said.
He said that since there had been no formal charges made at the time of Kormos’ statement, she still has the option to maintain her confidentiality at the meeting.
`She has nothing to hide,` Lauricella added, maintaining that Kormos.
Lauricella also said that Sphere has been openly critical of Kormos and said their actions regarding the matter `call into question their motives.`
NS4SED President Daniel Mackay also took issue with Sphere, and town officials, stating that there was a push for Sphere’s development before any word of it was made public.
Mackay cited meetings held in December, January and February between Sphere and town officials, which he said featured a request by town officials to the town engineer to set up an escrow account to cover the costs of engineering for Sphere’s proposed development well before any public notice was made about developing land in the commercial zone.
Mackay took issues with the idea that `people were intending to move forward,` by early February, before any discussion in front of the Town Board occurred.
`All of that was being set into motion before it was discussed in public,` Mackay said.
Greg Widrick, a managing partner at Sphere, said no such agreement was struck.
`We never wrote a check,` he said. `We would never do that [before a deal was made].`
`[Mackay] is trying to stir the pot when there is nothing to stir,` Widrick said.
Widrick said NS4SED members are `irrational,` and `think they can bully the town.`
He also said NS4SED has communicated with a small group of dissenters of another project Sphere is undertaking in Hamilton and has become `obsessed` with Sphere.
Widrick added that Sphere would be content with a 100,000-square-foot cap on retail buildings, if there were `incentives` attached to it that would allow developers to exceed the cap in exchange for providing services to the municipality. Widrick said this is common in other municipalities.
`We don’t need 219,000 square feet. We’re not fighting for Wal-Mart here,` Widrick said. `We’re flexible, the other group [NS4SED] is not flexible.:
He said he is hopeful that the moratorium will come to a close a soon as possible, to eliminate the uncertainty about developing land in New Scotland.
A six-month extension of the moratorium, as previously discussed by town officials, is still on the table.“