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Editor’s note: The Woodside Town Council agreed to a settlement with Nancy Reyering, paying $35,000 to cover her legal fees, on Nov. 14, 2017.
The Woodside Town Council voted 4-0, with three members absent, on Wednesday to take no action on an extended investigation into ethics violations alleged by former Woodside councilman Dave Burow against Nancy Reyering, a former member of Woodside’s Architectural and Site Review Board.
Woodside’s ethics code says that when the council receives a report on an alleged ethics code violation, the council “will accept testimony on the matter and determine whether a violation of the Code has occurred” and “may impose sanctions” when it determines that a violation of the code has occurred.
At the meeting, Councilman Daniel Yost asked town attorney Jean Savaree if the council would violate the ethics code by following the recommendation of Mayor Tom Livermore and drop the matter without making a determination about whether Ms. Reyering violated the code.
Ms. Savaree did not address the question directly, but noted that the council no longer had the authority to impose sanctions on Ms. Reyering because she was no longer on the ASRB.
Councilmen Peter Mason and Dave Tanner and Councilwoman Anne Kasten were absent.
ASRB appointments
The council also heard from four applicants for two open seats on the Architectural and Site Review Board and voted to appoint one: former councilman William McSherry.
In a vote on the second seat, applicant John Carvell received three votes and incumbent Maggie Mah one vote. Appointment requires four votes.
At the suggestion of Councilwoman Deborah Gordon, the council delayed the vote on the second seat until Ms. Kasten could participate, perhaps at the Feb. 28 meeting.
Mr. Mason, an architect who does business in town, and Mr. Tanner, a general contractor who does business in town, did not attend the meeting so as not to participate in the process of appointing members to the review board, Ms. Savaree told the Almanac.
In the interim, Ms. Mah, who applied for reappointment, will retain her seat.
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Lets see if I get this right…2 Councilmen did not attend the meeting not to participate in the process of appointing members of the review board …because these two absentees do business in Town, one as an architect and the other as a contractor.
So obviously these two are trapped in a conflict of interest situation.
If their conflict of interest precludes them from doing their job to appoint members of town committees, then why on earth are they on the Town Council?
Why don’t the architect and the contractor bow out and let other people without any of conflict of interest get seats on the Town Council so that the Council does its job properly.
Woodside is one wacky town. It should rename itself Wackyside.
I read previous articles to understand what is going on in Woodside. Two members of the Town Council have not participated in the process to appoint members of the architectural review board due to obvious conflict of interest because they do business in Town as an architect and a contractor.
What about even more serious conflict of interest when these two have projects that require the review of Town committees such as the Planning Commission and the Architectural Review Board.
If they recognized their conflict of interest and did not participate in the appointment process, how come they do not recognize that there is even more serious conflict of interest when their projects are reviewed by the town committees? The architect and the contractor have to either resign from their seats or they should not do any business in Town that requires the review of Town committees.
Even more confounding is the fact that Nancy Reyering was slammed with an ethics complaint for saying it loud what is obvious — that there was at least an appearance of conflict of interest when the architect Councilman had a project that has come to the review of the architectural board. It is sad that she was the one who was pushed out of the architectural board whereas the architect and the contractor are still members of the Town Council.