Ethics Complaint Against

Richfield Board Dismissed

With One Page Lacking, Oversight

Committee Concludes It Can’t Act

By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

RICHFIELD SPRINGS – The first complaint ever filed with the Town of Richfield Ethics Committee was dismissed this evening after the three members agreed there was insufficient content in the record for them to make a determination.

“Can I refile?” asked Mike Reid, the town Planning Board member who raised so-far-unspecified allegations against Town Supervisor Nick Palevsky and freshman Town Board member Ed Bello Jr.

Ethics Committee chairman Kane Seamon, who lost his seat on the town board last November, said Reid can.

Page one of the “Ethics Complaint Form” filed with Town Clerk Maggie Young on Jan. 20, 2020, has a notation in the upper right-hand corner: “page 1 of 2.”

However, the complaint the Ethics Committee  – Kane Seamon, Judy Stone and Ronda Morrison – reviewed tonight had no page 2.  “It could have been just the way it came out of the printer,” said Seamon.

One exhibit was attached: Town Board Resolution #1 of 2020, which authorized the town to pay former town attorney David Merzig $750 to review a disputed petition that, if found valid, would overturn the former town board’s vote last Sept. 30 approving a restrictive zoning code.

On Nov. 5, a majority that opposed the new code – Palevsky, Ed Bello Jr. and Fred Eckler – was elected and Merzig’s review, which concluded the code could not withstand a court challenge, was a first step to overturn it.

Reid, as a Planning Board member, would have been involved in developing the zoning code now under challenge.  However, whatever point Reid intended to make was unclear tonight.

“There’s nothing in these pages that tells me what the charges are,” said Randy Seamon, an audience member.

Said Ed Bello, “It is a bunch of people getting together trying to make us look bad.”

He pointed out that Dan Sullivan’s email is at the top of Page One of Reid’s complaint.  Sullivan is Planning Board chairman.  “I want to now who’s ganging up on me,” said Bello.

Seamon considered holding the complaint over to the next meeting, but Palevsky said he and Bello “are both under a cloud” as long as the matter is unresolved.

When the Ethics Committee voted 3-0 to dismissed the charge – “thank you, board members,” said Palevsky – Reid said he would refile what would be a complete complaint with the town clerk.