The subject of the Ethics Commission complaint against Commissioner Mary Jo Jablonski occupied the attention of the town board for a second meeting. When the mayor asked for public comments Bob Litzenberg once again asked where the complaint he’d filed 6-weeks ago stood, since town still hadn’t responded to his letter. That, as it did last time, caused some interesting exchanges that still indicate there’s confusion around how the town is handling this complaint and how they generally should handle such situations. Commissioner Jablonski added that she too hadn’t been contacted for the investigation and didn’t know what the complaint was about. Bob clarified that matter for the puzzled elected official by saying that it was a conflict of interest concerning her role as a town commissioner and as the Director of the Elkton Alliance, a group that receives substantial funding from the town. When she votes on the budget for the Alliance while also serving as the full-time Main Street Manager and Alliance Director, there is a conflict he elaborated.
Ethics in Elkton? You have to be kidding. Can anyone remember the purchase of the current Town building from the then Town Attorney? Does anyone else remember the previous Mayor giving all sorts of concessions to a developer, only to end up a part owner in properties owned by this and other developers when he left office? Does anyone remember the last Mayorial election? Who donated big bucks to the Mayor’s campaign? Why didn’t he give the press his list of donators when requested?
When Bob asks Joe why, the best answer would have been, “we don’t throw stones in glass houses.”