Board Of Ethics Justifies Investigation

Against First Selectman Candidate

By John Voket

Despite assertions from first selectman candidate Joseph Borst that the local Board of Ethics can “forget about” an ethics violation over a conflict of interest allegation, the volunteer board unanimously agreed to conduct a formal ethics investigation against the long-serving public official. Mr Borst has been a fixture on the Legislative Council for nearly two decades, and has been involved in local politics for more than 30 years.

The ethics board held a special meeting October 22 to determine whether or not a series of letters constitutes a formal complaint against Mr Borst, and to deliberate how to move forward if a hearing was justified. It took approximately one hour for the ethics committee to unanimously validate the complaint, and to unanimously concur the complaint should trigger a formal ethics investigation and hearing.

The committee tentatively scheduled that hearing for the first week in December, just days after Mr Borst would take the seat as Newtown’s top elected official if he is successful in his campaign. Since the ethics board determined that a bona fide complaint was issued, and a formal investigation will move forward as a result, the fundamental aspects of the case appear to be clear to the committee members.

Mr Borst served as a bus driver, and was employed by the transportation department of the Newtown school district between September 8, 2003 and October 12, 2007, when he drove his last run as a van operator. According to records provided by the school district business office, in that capacity Mr Borst’s total earnings were $39,427.

The candidate said this week that since he was hired, he maintained his employment because he wanted to be of service to the school district.

“I’m retied, I don’t need the money,” Mr Borst told the ethics panel.

But it was Mr Borst who first raised concerns over a potential conflict of interest when he issued a letter to the ethics board July 28 in which he stated: “Concerned citizens may, during the forthcoming campaign, allege that I as a member of the Legislative Council and employee of the Newtown Board of Education as a part-time bus driver, had a conflict of interest when voting on the school budget.”

In the initial letter, Mr Borst asked through member Mitchell Bolinsky, for “due diligence on the matter,” and requested a response from the ethics board “on official letterhead.” Some ethics board members early-on interpreted that as a request for past and future absolution based on a perceived conflict of interest, which the board refused outright and repeatedly.

Committee Chair’s Complaint

The complaint, which was registered by Democratic Town Committee Chairman Earl Smith, was apparently prompted by quotes Mr Borst made in a Newtown Bee article seeking clarification on both Mr Borst’s and ethics board members’ concerns. Mr Borst is a Republican.

During a contentious council budget session earlier this year, Mr Borst proposed a $250,000 increase to the Board of Education’s budget to specifically fund additional bus routes and transportation department fuel purchases. Mr Borst maintains the tie between his employment as a school bus driver was not directly related to any advocacy for the school’s transportation department or the $250,000 budget increase that he proposed specifically to help underwrite additional bus routes.

In that same conversation with The Bee, when asked directly if he was the one who came up with the idea to request an additional quarter-million dollars for the transportation department, Mr Borst said the suggestion to add money to the school transportation budget was tendered by his employer and immediate supervisor, Transportation Director Anthony DiLonardo.

Mr Borst said over the course of numerous discussions with his “boss,” he determined there was a “real need” for the extra funding. “I have discussions with Tony [DiLonardo],” Mr Borst said, “He indicated he needed these buses to keep parents happy.”

According to Section 8.1 of the Newtown Code of Ethics, “Officials and Employees have a responsibility to perform their town duties unencumbered by conflicting demands placed upon them by virtue of their commitment to other employment.”

Section 5.2.5 states, “An official or employee who has any financial or other private interest in any official action under consideration shall disqualify himself or herself from participation in the deliberating and decision-making thereupon.”

The ethics rules go on to state in 8.2.2, “Officials and employees shall disqualify themselves from all discussions, attempts to influence the views of others, and decision-making with respect to any issue in which their employment may conflict with their town position.”

Section 5.1 indicates, “It is expected that officials and employees will be acutely sensitive to possible conflict of interest issues and that they will conduct themselves in a manner that will scrupulously avoid any conflict of interest, or the appearance of conflict of interest.”

Calling For Perspective

During this week’s ethics board meeting, Mr Borst asked that Mr DiLonardo and school district business manager Ronald Bienkowski be brought in to provide perspective on the matter, as well as council chairman Will Rodgers.

Mr Borst said that Mr Rodgers’ predecessor, a Democrat, previously ruled another council member out of order when she asked Mr Borst to recuse himself from school budget deliberations because his wife, Barbara Borst, was a district employee during much of Mr Borst’s tenure on the council. Mr Borst rationalized that as the current chair, Mr Rodgers did not consider the motion to increase the transportation budget by $250,000 to be in conflict of interest because the chairman did not rule Mr Borst’s budget motion on behalf of the district out of order during that recent deliberation.

Mr Rodgers, contacted after the meeting, acknowledged that he had not ruled Mr Borst’s motion out of order.

“It’s because I was in total shock,” Mr Rodgers said. “It left me somewhat speechless, and it occurred to me at the time that the motion was probably doomed to failure. [So] I didn’t rebuke him publicly at the meeting.”

While the motion failed with only Mr Borst and Councilman Keith Jacobs supporting it, Mr Rodgers said he subsequently spoke to Mr Borst on two occasions since that meeting privately.

“Mr Borst is being somewhat disingenuous saying I didn’t rebuke him, when I spoke to him about the matter specifically and at two separate junctures,” Mr Rodgers said. “In fact, I encouraged him to contact the ethics board to get the issue vetted.”

After researching the matter further, Mr Rodgers learned that it was not his place as chair, under Robert’s Rules, to rule a motion out of order for anything other than procedural/parliamentary reasons.

“While I did personally feel his question revealed a breathtaking conflict of interest, I am not the ethics board,” Mr Rodgers said. “Had I ruled the motion out of order due to conflict of interest, I would have been usurping my authority.”

Mr Rodgers said he found it troubling that Mr Borst would fall back on a remark like “nobody told me I did wrong.”

“That is not the [appropriate] answer to an ethics question,” Mr Rodgers said.

During this week’s ethics meeting, Robert Hall, a local attorney and member of the Republican Town Committee, spoke suggesting the ethics committee is being “used as a political tool.”

“It’s so political, it stinks,” Mr Hall said reminding the ethics board that the complaint came from the Democratic Town Committee chairman. Mr Smith, stated in his letters constituting the complaint, that he also served as an elected council member, and was an employee of the Newtown school district as well.

The ethics board is moving forward with plans to open the formal ethics hearing against Mr Borst on either December 4 or 6. In his closing remarks to the ethics panel, Mr Borst said the delay would render the complaint moot.

“If I win [the election] I won’t be a bus driver anymore,” Mr Borst said. “And if I lose, I’m out of politics so it won’t matter either way.”