Westchester Works on Law to Require County Candidates to File Resume
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Long Island Republican Rep. George Santos may have been elected to Congress, but if someone like him tried to run for Westchester County Executive or the Board of Legislators, the chances of success could be far slimmer.
Westchester officials are working on draft legislation that would require a candidate for county executive or county legislator to file a resume with the Board of Ethics. While the Board of Ethics would not investigate a candidate’s background, each resume would be easily accessible to members of the public and media, presumably through a Freedom of Information request.
County Executive George Latimer said the two branches of county government are hashing out the details of a proposal so someone like Santos, who made wild and dubious claims about his background and experience en route to his election to Congress from New York’s 3rd Congressional District, could be more easily exposed during a campaign.
“If we can lock this into place, we can say we learned something from this experience of what’s happened in this congressional situation,” Latimer said.
Details are still being worked out, but the intent would be for any candidate who gains access to the ballot for either their party’s primary or the general election would be required to file their resume with the county Board of Ethics at a yet-to-be-determined time before the vote.
Latimer said the county government can only require candidates for its elected offices to file their resume, and the law could not apply to candidates running for office for other levels of government, even if their district includes Westchester.
However, it would hopefully serve as a deterrent if anyone thought they could do something similar to Santos while running for county office.
“We think that by having this requirement, this makes it very clear, you need to be truthful in your resume,” Latimer said. “There has to be a certain amount of clear, objective truth about what your background is when you step before the public. So we think this action that we can take in county government that would apply to anyone who competes for the position of county executive or county legislator, (which) are in our authority and control, and we wanted to move in this direction.”
It was unclear when a bill would be introduced at the Board of Legislators.
Throughout his campaign, Santos made a laundry list of claims about his work history, finances and biography and appears to have fabricated a wide assortment of stories that touch on multiple areas of his life.
The claims came to light weeks after he won his election in November.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
