Shelton Recruits CCM For Help With New Ethics Code

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities will conduct a seminar on ethics codes for the Shelton Board of Aldermen.

The seminar  has not been scheduled yet, but Board of Aldermen President John Anglace said CCM has run similar programs for other member cities and towns.

Shelton government leaders have been trying to revise the city’s current Code of Ethics since 2005 without success.

The Shelton Board of Ethics proposed a revised code in 2007 at the Board of Aldermen’s request, but it was sidelined when the state formed a task force in 2008 aimed at creating a single state-run agency with jurisdiction over all Connecticut cities and towns.

At a Board of Aldermen special meeting on Feb. 22, Peter Lewandowski, assistant legal counsel for the state Office of Ethics, said after working on that plan for several years, officials decided to abandon it because it would be too expensive for the cash-strapped state.

The issue of revising the Shelton Code of Ethics has grown in urgency since the revelations of a federal corruption probe that has resulted in criminal convictions of developer James Botti, his father, Peter Botti, the city’s biggest developer, Robert Scinto, and the former head of the city Building Department, Elliot Wilson.

Wilson was sentenced Feb. 23 to five months in prison, five months of home detention, two years of supervised release and a $5,000 fine.

He pleaded guilty to a charge of making false statements to a federal grand jury. Federal investigators say Wilson accepted a $2,500 cash gift from Scinto and claimed it was a loan he was paying back.

Scinto was snared on the same thing and faces sentencing later this month.

However, the city Ethics Code does not prohibit what Wilson reportedly did, and critics say it contains other serious flaws as well.

The Board of Ethics’ proposed revisions also fall short, say critics, who blame the Board of Aldermen for stalling the matter. Anglace denies that. He said the aldermen put the Code of Ethics revision on hold to see what the state would do.

"The consensus seemed to be behind the scenes that the recommendation that the state take over all the towns’ administration was just going to cost too much money," Anglace said.

Lewandowski said the state’s Municipal Ethics Task Force also decided that a single, "one size fits all" ethics code for all municipalities was a bad idea, and it would be better if each local government adopted its own.

"Each town should have something on their books to provide a guide to their citizens on what is permitted and what is not," he told the aldermen.

He said individual departments and agencies might also adopt their own codes that are stricter than the city’s code, but not more lenient ones.

Anglace said he thinks Shelton residents support revising the city’s code. "I think people are very concerned about their government," he said.

"It’s certainly okay to look at that periodically and see if adjustments should be made," he said.