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Lansing Town Supervisor Scott PinneyLansing Councilman Marty Christopher presented a final Ethics Committee report Wednesday on whether rentals and purchases the Town made from companies owned by Town Supervisor Scott Pinney's wife represented misconduct or a conflict of interest.  Last year New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office conducted an audit of the purchases that recommended some procedural remedies.  The report found Pinney had been transparent about the business the Town did with the two companies, granting an interview to the Lansing Star for an August 21, 2008 article, and asking the Town Ethics Committee to look into the issue before the Comptroller decided to get involved.  Christopher says the report finally puts the issue to rest.

"This will conclude the entire investigation," Christopher reported.  "All the points of issue that the State never followed up on (have been addressed).  It will go on record, ending it as far as we're concerned."

Lansing had been doing business with two companies owned by Tracy Pinney long before her husband was elected to the Supervisor position.  The Town had been buying Gravel from Genoa Sand and Gravel before she purchased it.  In 2008 Highway Superintendent Jack French told the Star that the proximity of Genoa Sand and Gravel, together with good pricing and a quality product made gravel purchases there a good deal for the town, which had been purchasing gravel there for at least ten years.  He also noted that equipment rentals from Eagle Rentals were convenient and, again, cost effective.

When Pinney became Town Supervisor French continued to purchase gravel and rent equipment from the two companies.  Between January 1, 2008 and August 24, 2009 the Town spent $14,000 on rental equipment in 2008, and paid approximately $48,000 in 2008 and $25,500 through August 24, 2009 for gravel.

The Ethics Committee report covers five points.  It finds that Pinney disclosed his business relationship to the town, and made the issue public in an August 2008 Lansing Star article in which he was interviewed.  In that article Pinney noted that the companies are owned by his wife, not himself.  He explained that he has no part in running those companies, and stated that his own company had ceased doing business with the Town.

"When I ran my campaign I stated I would no longer do contract work with the town through my business once I was elected," Pinney said in that interview.  "Alex Cole Paving hasn't done any business with the town.  However, my wife's business does.  The Town still rents equipment and they are buying gravel from Genoa Sand and Gravel.  As far as I know the Highway Department has been buying gravel out there for years."

He also said that the Town had a long history of doing business with the companies before he was elected; that he did not exert 'command influence' on French, who is himself an elected official.  French noted that he had asked the Town Attorney whether he could continue doing business with the companies before making the purchases.

Prior to the interview Piney also asked the Ethics Committee to look into the business to determine whether or not it was proper.  They investigated Highway Department records and conducted interviews, deliberating in several meetings before issuing a final determination.  The report finds that the Town had previously been doing business with the two companies.

It found that the Town had immediately stopped doing business with the companies when the Comptroller's audit was released, noting that "this change resulted in thousands of dollars in increased cost to the Highway Department and the taxpayers of Lansing."

The report also found that the Highway Department had followed the correct procedures, purchasing gravel at Tompkins or Cayuga County bid prices, as well as getting competitive bids for transactions that required them.

Finally it notes that in addition to the State and Town investigations, the Town was independently audited by an Ithaca accounting firm, Ciaschi, Dietershagen Little and Mickelson, and no improprieties were found.

"The Ethics Committee relied on the interviews, the documents, the auditing that was done," said Lansing Town Attorney Guy Krogh.  "They determined that between an outside audit, the State Comptroller's audit, and their investigation there was nothing found.  There was no misappropriation of funds.  As I recall, the committee adopted the same recommendation that the State Comptroller did."

DiNapoli's audit made four recommendations.  Pinney wrote a letter to Chief Examiner Patrick Carbone on June 16, 2010 detailing how and when he and the Town implemented 'plans of action' that addressed each recommendation.  That included familiarizing the Town Board with the applicable General Municipal Law, ceasing to do business with the two companies, and changing two procedures regarding purchases the Town makes.

The Lansing Town Ethics Committee has five members, including Christopher and French representing the Town, and three community members including Tom Jones, Scott Pronti, and Hurf Sheldon.  Christopher says the Ethics Committee report will go into Wednesday's Town Board meeting minutes and will be part of the public record.  As a result of this incident the committee also decided to put a complaint procedure into place.

"The Town of Lansing will have a Board of Ethics complaint form that will be provided for anyone considering a complaint of this nature," he said.  "They will have to complete the form, provide their name, address, a description of the complaint.  They will have to have it signed by a notary and submit to an interview.  We're not going to have anonymous accusations, that's for sure.  And it's got to be substantial."

Christopher says the committee dealt with the issue some time ago, Pronti encouraged the committee to produce a final document for the record.  Closing the case was on the committee's agenda for the last couple of months, according to Christopher.  He said the committee wanted to be thorough, which accounted for the time it took to complete the final report.

"That wound it up," Christopher told Pinney at Wednesday's board meeting.  "You're cleared of all charges after all this time."

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