New Rochelle Ethics Board Faces Transparency Crisis Amid Delayed Disclosures
NEW ROCHELLE, NY (April 30, 2025) — The City of New Rochelle’s Board of Ethics, tasked with ensuring the integrity of municipal governance, is rife with delays and incomplete financial disclosure filings from city council members raising questions about transparency and accountability. The board, composed of William V. Slade, Yehudah L. Buchweitz, and City Marshal Wilbert Ortiz, oversees annual financial disclosure statements required from certain municipal officers, employees, and elected officials which were due this year on February 28, 2025. These filings are critical to maintaining public trust, as they reveal potential conflicts of interest that could impact officials’ duties.
I believe incoming Council members should file disclosure forms immediately upon taking office, or at the latest, by February 28 of their first year. Yet, current rules allow members elected in 2023 to delay filing until February 28, 2025. A majority failed to meet even that deadline, with forms only provided to me on April 28, 2025, after a Board of Ethics meeting—16 months after they assumed office.
This delay, compounded by a drawn-out Freedom of Information Law process, is unacceptable. Residents should not rely on journalists, however wonderful, to obtain and publish these records, which are critical for monitoring potential conflicts of interest. New Rochelle’s failure to post disclosure forms on its website, unlike municipalities committed to ethical governance, obscures public oversight.
