Coxsackie, New York - Ethics Laws Trampled In Coxsackie Police Chief Vote
From the North Country Gazette - Editorial. 06/02/07
COMMENTARY
The lack of ethics in government is astounding. It’s pandemic.
Public officials flagrantly violate conflict of interest laws and seemingly have no concept of ethics or the appearance of impropriety—-or simply don’t care.
The events of the last week involving the firing of the police chief in the village of Coxsackie are mind boggling.
On May 14, Robert Helwig, Coxsackie chief for the past 10 years, was removed from office by a vote of the village trustees, no hearing, no due process and at that time, there wasn’t even a reason given for his termination. We’re terminating you because we don’t like you anymore. Goodbye.
There’s speculation that it had a lot to do with his former job as security director at the Capital District Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. According to Albany County Comptroller Michael Connors, Helwig blew the whistle on OTB for allegedly not properly investigating misconduct and they struck back, levying charges that Helwig’s son, who also worked at OTB under the supervision of Helwig, was working for the Coxsackie police department after calling in sick at OTB.
Now it’s being said that Helwig was fired because he wasn’t a team player, couldn’t get along with other area agencies. Too bad the Warren County Board of Supervisors doesn’t have the authority to fire Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland. He’s not a team player and can’t get along with other agencies, primarily because he wants to be the big cheese and if he can’t be, he’ll pick up his ball and go home and make it difficult for everyone else.
But you ain’t heard nothing yet. On Tuesday, the village board voted 3-2 to hire former state trooper Don Meier as the new part-time police chief at $20,000 a year. Not only is Meier the father-in-law of trustee Stephen Hanse which would legally preclude him from voting at all, but Hanse cast the deciding vote even after he was advised to abstain. Perhaps he should refresh himself with Article 18 of General Municipal Law relating to conflicts of interest or if he’s not familiar with it, take a crash course.
Kudos to mayor John Bull who has been an outspoken critic of the whole firing and hiring, saying it wasn’t done legally and how right he is. Bull says he’s filing a lawsuit against the village to reverse the decision and it’s virtually assured he’ll be successful.
It certainly appears that Helwig has more than sufficient cause to sue the village and there would seem to exist probable cause to ask the Attorney General’s office to look into the whole scenario, particularly if it had been the plan all along to shove Helwig out in order to hire Meier, particularly if it’s a open case of retaliation against an OTB whistleblower.
Retrieved June 3, 2007 from http://www.northcountrygazette.org/news/2007/06/02/ethics_trampled/
COMMENTARY
The lack of ethics in government is astounding. It’s pandemic.
Public officials flagrantly violate conflict of interest laws and seemingly have no concept of ethics or the appearance of impropriety—-or simply don’t care.
The events of the last week involving the firing of the police chief in the village of Coxsackie are mind boggling.
On May 14, Robert Helwig, Coxsackie chief for the past 10 years, was removed from office by a vote of the village trustees, no hearing, no due process and at that time, there wasn’t even a reason given for his termination. We’re terminating you because we don’t like you anymore. Goodbye.
There’s speculation that it had a lot to do with his former job as security director at the Capital District Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. According to Albany County Comptroller Michael Connors, Helwig blew the whistle on OTB for allegedly not properly investigating misconduct and they struck back, levying charges that Helwig’s son, who also worked at OTB under the supervision of Helwig, was working for the Coxsackie police department after calling in sick at OTB.
Now it’s being said that Helwig was fired because he wasn’t a team player, couldn’t get along with other area agencies. Too bad the Warren County Board of Supervisors doesn’t have the authority to fire Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland. He’s not a team player and can’t get along with other agencies, primarily because he wants to be the big cheese and if he can’t be, he’ll pick up his ball and go home and make it difficult for everyone else.
But you ain’t heard nothing yet. On Tuesday, the village board voted 3-2 to hire former state trooper Don Meier as the new part-time police chief at $20,000 a year. Not only is Meier the father-in-law of trustee Stephen Hanse which would legally preclude him from voting at all, but Hanse cast the deciding vote even after he was advised to abstain. Perhaps he should refresh himself with Article 18 of General Municipal Law relating to conflicts of interest or if he’s not familiar with it, take a crash course.
Kudos to mayor John Bull who has been an outspoken critic of the whole firing and hiring, saying it wasn’t done legally and how right he is. Bull says he’s filing a lawsuit against the village to reverse the decision and it’s virtually assured he’ll be successful.
It certainly appears that Helwig has more than sufficient cause to sue the village and there would seem to exist probable cause to ask the Attorney General’s office to look into the whole scenario, particularly if it had been the plan all along to shove Helwig out in order to hire Meier, particularly if it’s a open case of retaliation against an OTB whistleblower.
Retrieved June 3, 2007 from http://www.northcountrygazette.org/news/2007/06/02/ethics_trampled/