Council seeks to have police investigate former board member

HYDE PARK – Town Supervisor Al Torreggiani and three of his fellow Republicans on the Hyde Park Town Board are claiming that former Democratic Town Councilman Neil Krupnick committed a crime while in office and they are referring the matter to law enforcement for review.  Lone Democrat Linda Ruggiero, representing the Second Ward, voted against the resolution.

At a recent board meeting, the board voted 4-1 in favor of a resolution that accepts the town ethics committee’s report indicating that Krupnick, while serving as a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals, and continuing when he served on the town board, violated the town’s Code of Ethics (COE) and the New York State General Municipal Law (GML).  The report says the result of Krupnick’s actions equates to official misconduct, which is a misdemeanor under state law.

Torreggiani says the matter will be turned over to “the appropriate law enforcement agency.”

While serving on the ZBA followed by the town board, Krupnick also had contracts with the town to serve as the town’s webmaster in exchange for compensation.  The resolution says that Krupnick should have resigned from the ZBA or not taken the contract for maintenance of the town’s website.  The resolution also says “Krupnick’s employment as the town’s webmaster and remote meetings producer created a conflict of interest as it may have impaired Krupnick’s judgment and interfered with the discharge of his official duties, in violation of the town’s COE.  The ethics committee says that Krupnick’s employment violated the GML which prohibits any municipal employee from entering into any agreement for compensation for services rendered in relation to any matter before any municipal agency of which he is an officer, member, or employee.

A member of the public spoke at the recent town board meeting and decried the resolution, saying, “I find it divisive in the community to pursue this resolution. The violation was a technical…