Ethics panel clears mayor
Mayor Lionel Rivera has been cleared of all wrongdoing for his involvement in last year’s deal to build a headquarters and other facilities for the U.S. Olympic Committee, a deal that was awarded to a firm headed by a former client.
“It is the determination of the Independent Ethics Commission that the preponderance of evidence does not support a finding that the mayor violated any provision of the Code of Ethics,” the panel said in a nine-page report made public by the City Council on Monday.
“It is therefore the recommendation of the city that no further action be taken by City Council,” the panel concluded in its report.
Rivera appeared delighted Monday, smiling from the dais when his council colleagues said the report, which was marked confidential, should be released to the public.
But afterward, the mayor lashed out at the news media, saying the conflict-of-interest accusations were reported as fact, and at local businessman Ron Johnson, saying Johnson made unfounded allegations when he filed the ethics complaint in May.
“If someone makes allegations, they need to provide proof of their allegations,” he said. “If they can provide no proof, then there’s no case. I think that’s exactly what the ethics commission found. There was no substantiation whatsoever of the allegations made by Mr. Johnson.”
Johnson, president and chief executive officer of Central Bancorp, accused Rivera of unethical behavior for his role in the USOC deal since Rivera was a financial advisor to Ray Marshall, chairman of LandCo Equity Partners, the lead developer in the original deal with the USOC.
The release of the ethics commission’s report comes on the eve of the council voting on a new -- and more costly -- agreement with the USOC, which Johnson said is “likely not a coincidence.”
The first agreement between and among the city, the USOC and LandCo fell apart under the weight of an economic downturn, a federal lawsuit by LandCo and various other problems.
Despite the outcome of the ethics investigation, Johnson said he had no regrets.
“I believe that there are times when, although the letter of the law or the efforts of an ethics commission may prove someone or a situation to be OK, there are times when good judgment suggests that you recuse yourself, and I believe the mayor should have recused himself or at least have disclosed to his fellow council members that he had that (financial) relationship (with Marshall),” he said.
“I think that by not recusing himself, the mayor subjected himself, the council and the entire process to skepticism that was unnecessary,” said Johnson, whose own impartiality has been questioned because of his ties to one of the losing bidders in the first deal.
But the ethics commission had a different view, saying there wasn’t even an appearance of impropriety.
“The mayor played no role in the determination of which contractors would be invited to submit proposals nor in the selection of the contractor for the project,” according to its report.
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