Two weeks ago, the board declined to conduct a formal ethics review of Mayor Doug French because the request and allegations of impropriety had been improperly brought before them. According the Rye municipal code, only a city official or employee has standing to request a formal ethics review.

Prior to last week’s city council meeting, Mayor French said that he wanted to be reviewed by the Ethics Board to dispel any concerns that he intentionally violated local building codes or claimed improper STAR tax exemptions regarding a residential property on Richard Place. 

French insists that he neither improperly renovated the house from a two-family to single-family dwelling nor did he intentionally claim STAR tax exemptions for which he was not eligible. 

Ray Tartaglione, who often spars with Mayor French and City Manager Scott Pickup at city council meetings, sent a letter to the Ethics Board alleging Mayor French had knowingly collected STAR tax exemptions for which he was ineligible between 2003 to 2011. Tartaglione also accused the Mayor of making renovations to the Richard Place home without proper permits.  While French insists the conversion of the property from two-family to single-family residence occurred prior to him purchasing the house in 1992. Tartaglione insists French did the illegal renovations himself.

The ethics board includes three former elected city officers, the city manager and corporation counsel. In his letter, Tartaglione argued every member of the committee. City manager Scott Pickup and corporation counsel Kristin Wilson serve as ex-officio members of the board along with former elected officials John Alfano, Edward Dunn and Elizabeth Griffin Matthews.

In the end, the Ethics Board decided none of its remaining three members needed to recuse themselves; Pickup and Wilson voluntarily stepped aside.

On Thursday morning, the ethics board will convene again, not to settle questions of who has standing to request a review nor to debate whether a review should occur. Deputy Mayor Peter Jovanovich, after reading the letter into the official meeting minutes, requested the Ethics Board reconsider conducting a review of French.