Rye mayor sues Board of Ethics, saying it went 'rogue' in tree moratorium investigation
Rye Mayor Josh Cohn and three of his colleagues on the City Council took the unusual step of suing the city's Board of Ethics over its finding in February that the four officials violated the code of ethics.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, accused the Board of Ethics of going "rogue" and engaging in "abuses of power" for investigating the officials' use of an emergency process to expedite a tree-clearing moratorium. The emergency process was initiated after Cohn noticed that trees on a property adjacent to his home were going to be cut down by a developer.
"The Board of Ethics has significantly overstepped its limited authority by issuing an opinion which is unhinged from the principle in the cited section of the Code of Ethics, and by its actions has grossly interfered with the operation of the City Council," the lawsuit states.
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Cohn, along with Councilmembers Carolina Johnson, Julie Souza and Ben Stacks, attended an emergency meeting in February to consider implementing a moratorium on the clear-cutting of trees, a problem that, Cohn previously told The Journal News/lohud, has long plagued the city.
But by the time the hearing was ultimately held, in early February, the trees adjacent to Cohn's house had been cut. Given this development, Cohn said that his early decision to recuse himself from consideration of the issue was no longer pertinent, allowing him to vote on the matter. Cohn, Johnson, Souza and Stacks all voted to advance the process forward.
The three other City Council members, Lori Fontanes, Bill Henderson and Josh Nathan, boycotted the meeting over concerns about the mayor's involvement in a process that potentially implicated his personal interests.
"There is no doubt in my mind that we did the right thing," Fontanes previously told The Journal News/lohud.
The city's Board of Ethics later issued an advisory opinion finding that the "extraordinary rush" to use an emergency process gave the impression that the council was "influenced to take such action because of the proximity to the mayor's property."
The opinion, marked confidential, quickly found its way into the hands of the local media, including The Journal News/lohud, rankling the councilmembers who argue that its divulgence may have violated city law.
Cohn and the three councilmembers argue in their lawsuit that the Board of Ethics overstepped its lawful role as an advisory body by passing judgement on the validity of votes taken during the emergency meeting or elsewhere.
By purporting to dictate how councilmembers should vote, the board went "beyond its legal authority" and "interfered with the city's basic governmental process," the lawsuit argues. Cohn and his three colleagues are seeking to void the ethics opinion and rein in the Board of Ethics in future cases.
"They overstepped their boundaries in so many ways," Johnson, one of the plaintiffs, said of the Board of Ethics. "We live in a country of laws, and we are seeking the court’s advice on how to move forward."
At a meeting in March when a full complement was in attendance, the council devolved into finger-pointing and recrimination over the split that had erupted from the clear-cutting debate.
"Just be a rational, reasonable person," Souza pleaded at one point, to a colleague. "You're being very rude."
Representatives for the Board of Ethics did not immediately return requests for comment about the lawsuit.
Asher Stockler is a reporter for The Journal News and the USA Today Network New York. You can find him on Twitter at @quasiasher or send him an email at astockler@lohud.com. Reach him securely: asher.stockler@protonmail.com.
This article originally appeared on New York State Team: Rye NY mayor Cohn sues Board of Ethics over tree moratorium findings
