On Thursday afternoon, the Rye City Ethics Board meets to continue a review of . But its hard to know exactly how the session will unfold.
At its on Thursday, April 12 to provide information to them about Dapolite's allegation that RyeTV employee Nicole Levitsky deliberately concealed the existence of a January 25 city council budget workshop. Dapolite further alleged he was told by Levitsky that city manager Scott Pickup had influenced her to conceal the existence of the recording.
With only a day before the board reconvenes, there is very little reliable information about the way the session might actually unfold or who will actually attend. Ethics Board Chair and former Councilwoman Elizabeth Matthews has not, as of Tuesday, April 10, posted the minutes of the March meeting which might illuminate the Board's intentions or the advice it received from pro bono counsel Vincent Toomey.
The blog LausDeo10580 claims Matthews does not expect either City Manager Scott Pickup or RyeTV public access coordinator Nicole Levitsky to attend the Ethics Board meeting at all, though both were specifically accused by Dapolite of acting to mislead members of the City Council of the existence of a budget workshop recording made on January 25.
According to LausDeo10580, in an email written April 6 to Andrew Dapolite's counsel, Councilwoman Matthews wrote:
This will be an informal discussion attended only by the three members of our Board and Mr. Dapolite... At a later date, we will likely meet in a similar informal setting with other individuals who can offer us additional factual information.
LausDeo10580 also claims Ethics Board member John Alfano publicly chastised Dapolite for submitting his allegations to the City Council.
If these reports are correct, it would be unlikely the Ethics Board could make a final report to the City Council regarding Dapolite's allegations.
At its February 2 meeting, the Ethics Board interviewed City Assessor Noreen Whitty and City Building Inspector Maureen Eckman following a request for review by Deputy Mayor Peter Jovanovich of Mayor Doug French. The Ethics Board determined that Mayor French had neither purposefully acted to receive or conceal improper STAR tax exemptions nor had he purposefully violated building permit ordinances or received a favorable tax assessment for his secondary property.
