Commissioner Mathiesen had on his agenda Tuesday night a discussion of the alleged violation of the city’s ethics code by Mayor Yepsen. After reading his statement that appeared in the Saratogian and was reprinted here, a lively discussion took place.
It is interesting to note that Michele Madigan and Skip Scirocco complained that it had been months since they submitted their original inquiries to the city’s ethics board without a reply.
Having had a similar experience I publish below the response by Justin Hogan, chair of the Ethics Committee on the issue of the board responding. Basically, there is no limit.
Tony Izzo, who serves as attorney for the Ethics Board responded to a question by Skip Scirocco, that the Ethics Board can only issue advisory opinions and has no disciplinary authority.
The discussion was quite spirited and is very much worth watching. Mayor Yepsen responded to the peppering of criticisms and questions by the other members of the Council by noting that she preferred to allow the Ethics Committee process to complete its work before commenting further.
This is a link to the video of the council meeting. Double click on the Public Safety agenda item. Move the timer to 19:22. It runs to 40:47.
From: Justin Hogan [justahogan@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2016 6:35 AM
To: John Kaufmann
Cc: Tony Izzo; Trish Bush
Subject: Re: Ethics Complaint
Mr. Kaufman,
Please see the procedures for the Board of Ethics regarding inquiries; section 7, specifically section 7.4. The board is required to notify the person(s) alleged to have violated the code within twenty business days after we receive the inquiry, not the person who submitted the inquiry. We are going through the appropriate process, met again last week (Thursday) and have followed the code and procedures regarding all correspondence. Following the boards review and due diligence you will be notified within 10 days of our findings.
Please let me know if you have any further questions or would like myself or Tony Izzo to clarify the code and/or procedures for you.
Thanks,
Justin
Saratoga Springs Politics 
I believe the mayor…. is a great actress.
If the ethics board ever decides to come back and finds that she did, indeed, violate the ethics law (which seems to be blatantly obvious at this point), it would then be up to ‘we the people’ as to her penalty. In these eyes, it would be her removal from office or a resignation because how can ANYONE trust her after this?
And if the ethics boards – of which ALL members were appointed by her – find otherwise? I would hope there is an entire city knocking on the AG’s door the next minute for a full investigation of this.
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Well Big D mmmm,like I said she walks to much ink being wasted here although I agree with you,it’s a shame,Next!
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