Stamford Antagonists Reach a Settlement!

Good news from Stamford. According to an article in yesterday's Stamford Advocate and another article that just appeared online two hours ago, the board of ethics reached a settlement with the chair of the board of finance, in which they agreed to withdraw all ethics complaints and the federal suit filed by the finance chair. In addition, the finance chair announced his resignation as of Wednesday, the day the finance board was to vote on an ethics board request for funds to pay for counsel in its ethics proceedings. The only part I'm not crazy about is the city's payment of $45,000 for the finance chair's legal fees, especially since far more was done than necessary, especially the filing of the federal suit.

I said in a recent blog post that "the ethics board should also consider how best this case can be settled, because this messy case is fueling enmities and undermining trust in the government." With the proceedings running up all sorts of bills and bitterness, and allegations that were not clearly under the ethics board's jurisdiction, a settlement like this was the best thing that could have happened. Praise is due to those who put the settlement together.

For a look at the good and bad of the finance chair, who had served on the board for thirty years and taken a combative approach throughout, see the Advocate editorial that went online a half hour ago.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

---