Hempstead posts 2022 financial disclosure statements for elected officials 121 days late

The Town of Hempstead posted 2022 financial disclosure statements for elected officials on its website 121 days late, following inquiries by Newsday.

Town code requires officials, including board members, the supervisor, and department heads and employees in policymaking and political leadership positions to file annual statements to the town ethics board by May 15 and that elected officials' filings be posted on the town website within 30 days. 

The eight-page disclosure covers the previous calendar year and includes questions about assets, outside employment and income and political party leadership roles. The requirement to post the forms online was part of an ethics reform passed by the town board in 2017 aimed at preventing conflicts of interest when the town awards contracts and approves other town business.

When the forms were first posted online in 2018, Newsday reported that town officials embraced making the forms public with then-Republican Majority leader Erin King Sweeney stating, “As far as I am concerned, the more transparency, the better. The public has a right to know about any potential conflicts of interest." 

Only forms submitted by nine elected officials — town supervisor, council members, town clerk and receiver of taxes — are required to be posted online.

A Newsday search in early October found that the town had not posted the forms for 2022 and 2020. Following inquiries, the town posted forms for the nine elected officials on Oct. 13. 

Disclosure forms for 2020 had not been posted as of Nov. 5.

Redacted 2022 forms now online

The redacted disclosure forms, now available online, include information for Town Supervisor Don Clavin, town board members, Town Clerk Kate Murray and Receiver of Taxes Jeanine Driscoll. 

It's unclear whether the 2022 forms were filed on time. Four of the filings were stamped as received by the town attorney’s office on May 18, one was stamped May 16, and four were not stamped.

On Friday, in response to queries from Newsday about irregularities, the town amended four forms and then reposted them on the town website, without answering questions about them.

Councilman Christopher Carini's 2022 form contained several irregularities. One is a large redaction on a part of the form where no information is required. The form also contained several sections where Carini's responses were unclear about certain financial interests. On Friday Carini changed those sections to say that he did not have those interests. 

At an unrelated news conference earlier in the day Friday, Carini refused to answer questions about his disclosures. 

Councilman Dennis Dunne Sr. had disclosed he had a contract with the town but described it as "Councilman Town Board." On Friday his form was amended with that contract crossed out.

Councilwoman Laura Ryder disclosed she had no additional income outside her paralegal work and elected office salary, but that section was nonetheless redacted.

Ryder's and Driscoll's forms were amended and reposted Friday to indicate the correct filing year.

Although the forms require disclosing real estate ownership within the town, most elected officials reported they didn't own property in or near Hempstead.

Town ethics counsel Steven Leventhal said he wouldn't consider failure to list homeownership as a violation because the officials had to disclose their home addresses on the form. 

Disclosures for previous years show that Clavin stopped his legal practice when he was elected town supervisor. 

The forms show that most elected town officials serve on local Republican committees. One exception is Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby, who is part of a Democratic committee. 

'Need to know...conflicts of interest'

Financial disclosure forms for elected officials for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021 also are available online. Only about one third of those forms bear dated stamps when they were received by the town attorney's office, making it impossible to determine how frequently officials missed the filing deadlines. 

"We expect our elected officials to be transparent," said Barbara Epstein, a co-president of League of Women Voters of East Nassau, when asked about the late filings and problems posting them online. "People need to know if there's any conflict of interest." 

Epstein said the information should be easy to access and having it online is one way to accomplish that goal.

"It's important for people to be able to access this information," Epstein said. "A Freedom of Information [Law] request is a lot harder process" than accessing it on the town's website.

Under the town ethics code, the public can review or copy any of the financial disclosure forms filed with the town.

Town Attorney John Maccarone, who is a member of the town ethics board, referred questions about the disclosure forms to Leventhal. 

Leventhal said he was not involved in posting the forms.

The town ethics code doesn't specify who is responsible for posting the forms online. 

"It should be up," town spokesman Greg Blower told Newsday on Oct. 26. "Stuff like that we're supposed to do. And it should be done. I don't know why it's not." 

Blower said following Newsday's inquiries he asked the town attorney's office about it and on Oct. 13, the 2022 forms were posted. He said he did not know who was responsible for posting them. 

Councilwoman Melissa Miller, whose form was stamped May 18, said Friday that she had filed on time and referred questions to Maccarone.

None of the town's other elected officials responded to queries about their financial disclosure forms. 

Difficulty with compliance

Meeting minutes obtained by Newsday through an Open Meetings Law request show that the ethics board has had difficulty with compliance.

On four occasions since March 2022, the board discussed the problem of delinquent forms, the minutes show. 

“When the 2022 disclosures are sent out we will also send anyone who is delinquent [,] disclosures for the missing year(s),” the minutes from a March 2023 meeting stated.

At the end of September, seven disclosures needed to be amended or completed and 31 still hadn’t been filed, according to minutes from the Sept. 28 ethics board meeting.

It's unclear whether the ethics board met during the first 15 months of Clavin's administration. The town did not provide meeting minutes requested by Newsday for that time period.