North Hempstead officials voted Tuesday to amend the town’s financial disclosure policy after the town discovered it failed to collect financial disclosure statements from the town’s former Democratic Party leader Gerard Terry.
Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth said at Tuesday’s 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.
“Everything that we’re requiring the person who is filling out the disclosure for themselves, they also now have to include all of those members of their spouse’s family as well,” Bosworth said.
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.
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.
Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas has said she is investigating Terry’s tax issues and public jobs.
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.
Bosworth said the town attorney’s office reviewed the financial disclosure policy and received recommendations from the town’s ethics board about who should be required to file disclosure forms.
Town Attorney Elizabeth Botwin said the town’s Board of Ethics receives every financial disclosure report in May and reviews each of them individually.
“There is a process in our ethics code for the board to ask questions about any concerns or what seem to be discrepancies,” Botwin said.
Bosworth said the amended law also requires outside contractors who “directly advise boards” to file financial disclosure reports.
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.
Also at the board meeting, the board passed a resolution updating the list of employees of the town who hold “policy-making positions” to file financial disclosure reports.
Reach reporter Joe Nikic by e-mail at jnikic@theislandnow.com, by phone at 516.307.1045 x203. Also follow us on Twitter @joenikic and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
