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June 25, 2009 | 01:34 PM
With a number of former county officials recently convicted of crimes, Suffolk legislators on Tuesday unanimously mandated ethics training for all county employees.
"A lot of alumni have left this body, not because of an election, but because they had handcuffs on," said the measure's sponsor, Legislator Brian Beedenbender (D-Centereach). "We need to do everything feasible to ensure we have the public's trust."
Should the county executive sign the bill, beginning January 2010 all county civil service employees would receive and declare their intention to follow the county's ethics code as delineated in a booklet, which is still in the design process, Beedenbender said.
Elected officials and their appointees — such as legislative and county executive staff and department leaders — would receive the book and undergo ethics training each time they or their overseers are re-elected, Beedenbender said. While only the lawmakers vote, and are ostensibly the decision makers, appointees also need the ethics training as they "influence and carry out policy," the legislator said.
The course, which is still being designed, will probably be a few hours long and cover laws and judicial rulings related to government officials, as well as standards the county's three-member volunteer Ethics Commission has set down for officials' conduct and use of powers, Beedenbender said. The former include the county's ban on lawmakers accepting donations from registered lobbyists. In an example of the latter, the Ethics Commission, which issues private opinions to officials who seek its guidance, has made a number of declarations to lawmakers with relatives in county employ regarding whether their voting on a lag payroll for Suffolk workers presents a conflict of interest, Beedenbender said. The training "would outline all of that," he said.
The course and booklet are being developed by the county's full-time director of ethics, retired judge Alfred Lama. He is also responsible for collecting and reviewing officials' financial disclosure forms and other documents relating to conflicts of interest. The training session would be held once in odd-numbered years and twice in even-numbered years, which in Suffolk begin new Legislature terms. In effect, Legislature officials would receive an ethics refresher in each even year and county executive aides and appointees, in alternating even years beginning in 2012.
The county must "make sure that the people making the decisions ... know what the ethical standards are and follow them," Beedenbender said. "There is no ignorance as a defense anymore."
County Executive Steve Levy plans to sign the bill, his spokesman, Mark Smith, said Tuesday.
Recent years have seen a number of sitting or former county legislators indicted. Last year, Legislator Elie Mystal, who has since resigned his seat, pleaded not guilty to charges of filing false documents covering up his residency outside his district. Former Legislator Wayne Prospect was convicted of bribe-taking in 2006, and this past January, former county lawmaker Allan Binder pleaded guilty to the same crime.
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