Lucky Little Leigh

Dear Nieces and Nephews, on December 23rd, the THRecord reported that Legislator Leigh was fined $1000 for ethics violations.

LEIGH SAID: "I decided to pay the fine to put this matter behind me and move forward, I have been educated by this process and I am hopeful that my colleagues have also learned much in relation to the sensitive nature of potential conflicts of interest and the eagerness of the news media to rush to judgment. 

Rush to judgment? Didn't you accept a job with a company that was also appearing before your committee(s)? (Physical Services Committee-Chair and the "Ad-hoc" Committee tasked with overseeing the OC Government Center building)

Rush to judgment? Did it just slip your mind about disclosure?

Oh that pesky news media! 

Let's take a look at the Grand Jury report:

http://www.orangecountygov.com/filestorage/1140/16321/Grand_Jury_Report___April_2014.pdf

"The Grand Jury found, based on the evidence before it, that the county legislator [hereinafter “Legislator A”] violated Orange County’s Ethics Law when he failed to make mandated public disclosures regarding his employment with an architectural firm [hereinafter “Vendor X”] , which had entered into a $4.7 million dollar contract with the County to plan and design renovations for the Orange County Government Center and six other County buildings.At that time Legislator A was chairman of a legislative statutory committee working on the Government Center project and also was a member of an “Ad Hoc Building Committee”exclusively devoted to that project . Those public disclosures were required to be made to both the Orange County Legislature and the Orange County Ethics Board. Moreover, Legislator A failed to recuse himself from two votes pertaining to these projects even after he had been offered and intended on accepting employment with Vendor X"

"…The Grand Jury also determined that the legislator’s actions were not willful” as the term is  used the General Municipal Law (omission theirs) in that it appears that Legislator A was not aware of his duties under the law,… "

Willful or ignorant, this is not what you want in a legislator: someone who makes laws but can't follow them. (Legislator Leigh Benton is aka Legislator "A")

But think about this, Phil Clark, of Clark, Patterson Lee (aka "Vendor X") SHOULD know better, as a trustee of the municipal research organization CGR (Center for Government Research) http://www.cgr.org/about_trustees.aspx

From the CGR website:
"George Eastman, the visionary leader who created Eastman Kodak, founded a bureau of municipal research in Rochester NY in 1915 “to get things done for the community” and to serve as an “independent, non-partisan agency for keeping citizens informed.” Over more than 9 decades CGR has grown from a bureau focused on the needs of one city into an organization with far broader reach.
Today CGR works to bring clarity to issues that affect the quality of life in communities throughout the Northeast. We work with government, nonprofit and business leaders who drive public policy action and organizational change. We inform and empower leaders by providing fact-based, objective research and analysis and by making recommendations that are achievable. Our clients value the quality of our work, our pragmatic approach and our commitment to remaining independent and non-partisan.
CGR is a nonprofit organized under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. We bring expertise to issues spanning economics and, public finance, government management, health and human services and education. In addition we are skilled at program evaluation, strategic planning & facilitation and census data interpretation."

Independent…

Nonpartisan…

Objective...

Baloney!

And as far as Lucky Little Leigh,  $1000.00? That's all?      



FYI: TIMELINE
Spring 2013  CPL contract was "authorized" (not signed) (according to Leigh)
September 2013 County signs contract with Clark Patterson Lee for $4.7 million
November 2013 Clark Patterson Lee offers job to Legislator Leigh Benton
December 2013 Leigh accepts job as "Client Relationship and Development Manager"      
      (according to Leigh)
January 2014 Leigh works for CPL for about 2 weeks, then resigns, apparently due
       to the noise generated by the pesky news media.