Attorneys Call for Board of Ethics to Withdraw Report and Apologize

The lawyer who advised Mayor Richard Thomas on his financial disclosure filings is demanding that the Mount Vernon Board of Ethics withdraw its recent report and apologize to the Mayor for its “reckless and defamatory actions.”

In its report earlier this week, the Board falsely accused the Mayor of receiving more than $100,000 from the Amani Charter School. The facts were the complete opposite. On his disclosure form, the Mayor correctly noted that the school receive funds from the city including more than $100,000 grants for afterschool programs dating back to 2013.

Laurence Laufer, the mayor’s attorney, sent a letter to the Board of Ethics in February, alerting the Board to their mistake, but this letter was ignored.

“This misunderstanding could have been cleared up with a phone call, one surely that an ‘apolitical board of volunteer citizens’ with ‘no political agenda’ would not have hesitated to make,” Lauer said in a March 23 follow-up letter, adding. “Unfortunately, the board has chosen a different path.”

The letter also calls into question the ethics of publicly releasing what was supposed to be a confidential report and whether the board had overstepped its authority.

For the full letter, click here.