Times Union
Editorial
May 6, 2018

Colonie should leave no doubts about conflict

The town of Colonie has a conflict of interest problem in its review of a hotel-office building on Albany Shaker Road: Clough Harbour & Associates, the engineer for the developer, British American Development Corp., is also the planning board's engineer.

The town says it's OK since Clough Harbour disclosed the relationship before taking the job with the town and, as a contractor, is not subject to town ethics rules.

That's pretty thin, especially since, as the citizens' group SAVE Colonie notes, a condition of taking the town position was to "avoid all conflicts of interest or appearances of impropriety," including not representing clients with projects before the town.

Assuring citizens that they have an ethical government means following not just the letter of the law, but the spirit of it. Perception matters.

There's a simple solution: Hire a different firm to represent the town in this review.

https://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Editorials-Long-story-short-12890961.php