Rye’s Board of Ethics found “cause for concern” in the complaint by a Rye TV employee that superiors made him hide the fact that a council workshop had been recorded on video.
A vaguely-worded report by the ethics board to the city council this morning says the matter has essentially been resolved with the settlement of a related lawsuit over the whistleblower’s treatment.
Andrew Dapolite alleged in a detailed letter in February that his supervisor, Nicole Levitsky, and City Manager Scott Pickup expected him to lie to the public about whether the Jan. 25 workshop on fire department restructuring was taped.
Less than a month later, Dapolite was reprimanded for personal use of city equipment, and Dapolite sued over “illegal retaliation.” That matter was settled last month.
The ethics board interviewed Dapolite at length. The report does not go into specifics about any of his claims, but concludes:
The settlement addressed important issues and evinced goodwill by all parties. Nonetheless, the pressures that led to the initial correspondence are cause for concern because they seem to challenge the principles of the Code of Ethics. Specifically, the Code says that the proper operation of the city government requires that public officers and employees observe in their official acts the highest standards of morality … and that the public have confidence in the integrity of its government and the officers and employees thereof.
Levitsky declined to comment when contacted today, and the city manager and employee could not immediately be reached. Following is the full text of the report.
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July 10, 2012
Mayor French and Members of the City Council:
With regard to Mayor French’s March 7 referral of Andrew Dapolite’s February 13 letter to you, we met and discussed the issue four times. We used our established informal process to collect and examine information and to speak to the complainant. We sent you an interim report April 18, after our process was interrupted by an Article 78 proceeding initiated by Mr. Dapolite on April 17.
On June 18, the Corporation Counsel advised us that the Article 78 was settled and the matter had been discontinued. We met on June 27 to continue our review.
It is the consensus of the Board that the immediate matter has been resolved by the stipulation. The settlement addressed important issues and evinced goodwill by all parties. Nonetheless, the pressures that led to the initial correspondence are cause for concern because they seem to challenge the principles of the Code of Ethics. Specifically, the Code says that the proper operation of the city government requires that public officers and employees observe in their official acts the highest standards of morality … and that the public have confidence in the integrity of its government and the officers and employees thereof.
The Ethics Committee believes that activities prior to the incident now resolved, as well as this incident and the activity of several parties surrounding it, created an atmosphere that damaged the public confidence in the integrity of the government, its officers and employees. The atmosphere of collegiality and mutual respect, which has prevailed in the past, was lost as various parties exaggerated this incident and other matters well beyond necessary.
Respectfully submitted,
Elizabeth Griffin Matthews, Chair
John L. Alfano
Edward B. Dunn
