The Culver Town Council members appointed five members to the Culver Redevelopment Commission this week.
The action had taken a little longer this year following some questions into alleged actions of past CRC members approving certain benefits to organizations on which they serve. In this case, it was the Develop Culver organization.
Culver Town Attorney Jim Clevenger explained that he reviewed statutes regarding conflict of interest, establishment of Redevelopment Commissions, plus minutes and claims acted upon CRC members in 2020.
Clevenger stated, “In my review of the CRC minutes, Develop Culver and all of those things, the statute goes on to say that pecuniary interest means that ‘…if the contract or purchase will result or intended to result in an ascertainable increase in the income or net worth of the public servant.’ There just wasn’t any information – evidence – that I could find that any of that kind of thing went on.”
There were some actions taken by the CRC to approve funds to the Develop Culver organization, an organization that former CRC members Rich West and Sue McInturff serve on, but Clevenger said it appeared that Develop Culver and the CRC have the same project goals in mind.
“As far as I was concerned, that wasn’t a conflict of interest because it didn’t go into anybody’s pocket. It wasn’t voting themselves money. It was for a common kind of project,” said Clevenger.
He added there were allegations of criminal intent, but Clevenger did not determine that to be the case as no personal benefit was found.
As for alleged ethics violations, he declared them to be unfounded.
Clevenger did suggest that members who sit on an organization and on the CRC should abstain from votes if there is action toward their particular organization.
The council members unanimously accepted Clevenger’s findings for future policy.
Following that explanation, the appointments to the CRC were made. Interviews were previously held for eight candidates who wanted to fill the five annually appointed seats. Town Council President Ginny Bess Munroe appointed John Rogers, Paul DeBenedictus, and Sally Riccardi as the town council president appointments. Bill Cleavenger was unanimously approved as one of the town council member appointments. The other town council appointment was Gary Peric who was approved by a 3-2 vote. Rich West and Bill Cleavenger opposed the vote. The non-voting member from the Culver Community School Corporation is Superintendent Karen Shuman.
