When you hire a professional, you expect professionalism. The recent ethics evaluation concerning Vice Mayor Kalivianakis failed to uphold the professional standards required of a comprehensive ethics review.
Five individuals, including myself, filed 29 charges covering 11 sections of the town’s ethics policy concerning unprofessional conduct and the appearance of impropriety. The town engaged an attorney, whose primary focus is real estate, to handle the case. Despite the number of charges, the adjudicator issued a generalized conclusion of “no violations,” which makes me question if she conducted a thorough examination.
Several charges focused on the appearance of impropriety, having to do with willfully accepting private email communications from a developer, after stating that he didn’t “want these in the public domain.” It took a FOIA request and then additional time for Kalivianakis to finally produce her private email. This initial lack of transparency is a textbook example of the appearance of impropriety, in my view.
