The North Hempstead Town Board voted Tuesday to extend the deadline for employees to file financial disclosure forms to give employees more time to comply with new requirements approved in March.
Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth said at the March 22 board meeting the amended law is “more comprehensive” by requiring family members of employees who work at the town, who also work at the town, to file financial disclosure reports.
The amended law also requires outside contractors who “directly advise boards” to file financial disclosure reports.
The board approved the reforms after the town discovered it failed to collect financial disclosure statements from the town’s former Democratic Party leader Gerard Terry.
Bosworth ordered a review of town policies and procedures after a Newsday report revealed last month that Terry, who until recently was the attorney for the town’s Board of Zoning Appeals and special counsel for the town attorney, owes more than $1.4 million in federal and state back taxes, has been party to five lawsuits and let his attorney registration lapse for three years.
The town never collected financial disclosure statements from Terry, the head of the North Hempstead Democratic Committee from 2007 until he resigned Feb. 1, except for a brief period, or any other party leader, Town Attorney Elizabeth Botwin said.
The North Hempstead ethics board is investigating Concetta Terry, Gerard Terry’s wife and a deputy town clerk, for allegedly omitting her husband’s tax debts from her financial disclosure records.
None of her disclosure reports from the 2006 calendar year list Gerard Terry’s tax warrants or liens, though she did report her and her husband’s outstanding auto loans.
The town code calls for a civil penalty of up to $10,000 if a filer “knowingly and willfully with intent to deceive makes a false statement or gives information which such individual knows to be false” on a disclosure statement.
Botwin recommended the new reforms and the deadline extension “in order to provide greater clarity to the disclosure requirements and to obtain more pertinent information regarding relatives of filers employed by the town.”
The deadline for the 2015 reporting year was changed from May 15 to June 1.
Pursuant to state law, North Hempstead adopted a code of ethics in December 1990, the online version of the town code says.
Section 16A-7 outlines who is required to submit the town’s financial disclosure statement each year, including elected officials, candidates for town office, purchasing and contract officers, department heads and their deputies, in addition to party leaders.
The form requires filing officials to report financial interests, outside employment, debts, investments and other information for themselves and their spouse and children.
Also at the meeting, the board appointed Paul DiMaria as executive director of the town’s Solid Waste Management Authority.
Former Solid Waste Management Authority Executive Director Igor Sikiric left the post officially on May 1.
His departure is listed as a “separation,” according to a town personnel resolution.
John Peters, former deputy executive director of the Solid Waste Management Authority, is leaving his post on May 13. His departure is listed as a “resignation,” according to the resolution.
Bosworth did not comment on their departures but thanked DiMaria for stepping into the position while the town sought a permanent replacement.
Their exits come nearly three months after a former administrative assistant, Helen McCann, was arrested for allegedly embezzling more than $98,000 from the authority.
Commissioner of Information Technology Frank Prisciandaro and Bosworth’s chief of staff Lucinda Cardinal also left their positions at the town last week.
According to the resolution, Prisciandaro’s departure is listed as a “separation,” while Cardinal’s is listed as a “resignation.”
