Yorktown Tax Watchdog Files Suit over Grace Defense Vote
Yorktown’s self-proclaimed tax watchdog filed a lawsuit against the Town Board last week for voting to spend taxpayer funds to defend Supervisor Michael Grace against a conflict of interest grievance filed by former Supervisor Susan Siegel in his role as a private attorney.
Ed Ciffone, president of the United Taxpayers of Yorktown and an outspoken critic of Grace at many board meetings, hired former Town Justice Marc Oxman to launch the litigation in state Supreme Court last Wednesday.
“The taxpayers of Yorktown should not have to pay Michael Grace’s attorney’s fees for his unethical behavior as a private attorney,” Ciffone remarked. “I have sued to enjoin and restrain the Town Board from doing so.”
“Chapter 30 of the Yorktown Code allows for the expenditure of funds for legal fees and other costs incurred in the defense of litigation against a town employee acting in his or her public capacity,” Ciffone maintained. “It does not allow for such an expenditure where the town employee is charged with wrongdoing in his or her private capacity.”
On October 3, councilmen Ed Lachterman, Gregory Bernard and Tom Diana voted to hire attorney Marvin Raskin for up to $2,500 to represent Grace after Siegel sent an August 26 request to the New York State Bar Association Grievance Committee for the Ninth Judicial District to investigate what she contended “appears to be a clear-cut violation” of the conflict of interest provisions of the Bar Association’s Rules of Professional Conduct by Grace.
In her correspondence, Siegel stated in 2016 Grace voted to award a towing contract to a local business, Yorktown Auto Body. A year later, as a private attorney, he represented the same company in a private legal matter.
On October 6, Siegel filed a second complaint with the Bar Association’s Grievance Committee against Grace about using public funds for an attorney to respond to her initial conflict of interest complaint.
On Friday, Town Attorney Michael McDermott reiterated his position from the October 17 televised board meeting that the board’s resolution was “an appropriate expenditure of town money.”
“Mr. Grace’s duties as supervisor are central to the claim of a conflict of interest, as alleged by Ms. Siegel. Simply put and to make it unequivocally clear, the grievance was not filed but for the fact Mr. Grace is the town supervisor,” McDermott stated. “Ms. Siegel filed a grievance involving a matter for which she has no personal knowledge or involvement. She based her claim upon an article written by someone else with even less personal knowledge. All of which was made a story because Mr. Grace is the town supervisor.”
McDermott maintained there was precedence in retaining the services of Raskin, pointing to an August 5, 2014 Town Board resolution in which the board agreed to provide legal representation to McDermott’s predecessor, Jeanette Koster, when a similar grievance had been filed against her.
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