It has been over two (2) weeks since my Ethics Complaint against City Council Members Mandel, Adelson, and Torres was filed with the City's Ethics Board. The complaint was both emailed and hand delivered to the City Corporation Counsel's office on July 22, 2013. Yet for some reason there has been no response from the city; not even an acknowledgement that the complaint was received.
A copy of the complaint was also sent to the Nassau County District Attorney's office with a request for them to investigate possible criminal activity. The very next day the Nassau DA's office called to inform me that the complaint was received and that they were reviewing the allegations contained in the complaint. I have meeting with the Nassau DA in two weeks to go over the compaint and supply them with additional evidence that has been uncovered and/or brought to my attention.
Why won't the city acknowledge the complaint? Have the members of the Ethics Board received copies of the complaint? In the spirit of "transparency" Mandel, ADelson, and Torres promised, will there be a public meeting of the Ethics Board to discuss the complaint? Or will Mandel, Adelson, Torres and City Manager Jack Schnirman simply ignore the complaint, like it was never filed? It appears the latter is very possible.
The complaint centers on a 2011 lawsuit filed by Democrats Len Torres, Scott Mandel, and Fran Adelson. The council members were represented by Uniondale law firm Harris Beach, which I allege provided its services for free to the council members. Then, only 21 days later, the same council members then voted to hire Harris Beach to form the city's local development corporation. Such a gift may have been a violation the city's ethics code and possibly criminal law as well.
So what will Mandel, Adelson, Torres and Schnriman do with the complaint?
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Two weeks and counting......Let's see if this administration will be as transparent as they promised. If they have done nothing wrong, as they insisted, wouldn't they want to have the meeting, call witnesses, and investigate the matter?
