With the initial hearing for New Scotland advisory committee member Liz Kormos postponed indefinitely, her counsel is seeking to have the charges dropped for a number of reasons.
Kormos, a member of the Commercial Zone Advisory Committee, has been accused by Committee Chairwoman Roz Robinson of having a conflict of interest regarding her relationship with a potential buyer of the Bender melon farm, a key piece of property inside the commercial zone.
That developer was later outbid by Sphere Development LLC, who is planning to develop the farm with a 137,000-square-foot anchor store, pending the approval of zoning laws recommended by the committee and approved by the Town Board.
Kormos also is a member of advocacy group New Scotlanders for Sound Economic Development, which supports a 50,000-square-foot size cap on commercial retail stores.
Town Attorney Mike Mackey said town officials could remove Kormos without a hearing, since she is a political appointee, but she would still have the right to an ethics hearing.
In a letter dated Monday, Oct. 27, Kormos’ attorney, Peter Lauricella, laid out his complaints with the proceedings thus far.
I must respectfully disagree that the statement prepared by Ms. Robinson and the documents forwarded to me constitute a ‘complaint.’ We continue to believe the ‘complaint’ is defective, as Ms. Kormos still has not been notified what law she potentially has violated, he wrote.
Lauricella said that anytime a person is charged with violating a law that carries a penalty or punitive action, that person must receive a written notice of the specific charge in question.
He likened it to a traffic ticket issued to a driver speeding or running a stop sign. He said the officer hands you an `information,` more commonly know as a ticket, that specifies which traffic law you are being charged with violating. He said the general claim that Kormos violated ethics law is inadequate.
As of this point, the town considers Robinson’s statement legitimate.
`It is my understanding that the board considers the written statement prepared by Roz Robinson, together with the documents forwarded to [Lauricella] constitute the Complaint against [Kormos],` New Scotland Supervisor Tom Dolin said in a Monday, Oct. 27, letter.
Further, Lauricella said in a letter dated Friday, Oct. 31, that general municipal law states in section 808 (3), that `the Town Board can not act as the Board of Ethics.` He said the law states the ethics board must have at `least three members a majority of whom are not otherwise officers or employees of such municipality.`
Mackey said in a letter to Dolin, also dated Oct. 31, that adopting a new local law could remedy the situation.
`As far as the current hearing goes, it can proceed before the County Ethics Board. The law gives that board jurisdiction in the event there is no local board,` Mackey’s letter states.
Lauricella also criticized the evidence the board has presented, and said the redacted documents sent to Kormos regarding the matter should have been sent untainted.
`Ms. Kormos is entitled to see these documents unredacted. The town is not entitled to make redactions to evidence without court approval,` he wrote.
`It’s another reason that this whole thing has been mishandled from day one,` Lauricella said in a later interview. `I think that the whole thing should be dropped.`
Lauricella also said he believes Peg Neri, a member of the Town Board, should recuse herself from the matter, since Lauricella believes prior comments Neri made about Kormos’ alleged conflict of interest show she has a bias against her.
Neri did not respond to inquiries made by the Spotlight Newspapers seeking comment.
Lauricella is also asking the town to provide a list of witnesses it plans to call in the proceedings. Dolin said the town is still planning to hold a public hearing to determine if Kormos has violated the town’s ethics code, but no date is set. A hearing was scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 29, but was postponed due to concerns from Lauricella about `general procedure and due process.` Dolin said that the town postponed the hearing to give Lauricella adequate time to prepare Kormos’ defense.
`There was a question of filing procedure to be followed,` he added.
Dolin said the town is still working out some of the details of the proceeding, and said that the board has decided to seek outside counsel to argue the charges against Kormos, opting not to use Mackey.
`It is still up in the air,` Dolin said of the litigation. `We have to finalize the procedures.`
A public hearing to extend the moratorium is set for Wednesday, Nov. 12. The Town Board can then vote on the extension. Without an extension, there would be no 50,000-square-foot cap on retail developments in the commercial zone.“