New London - The Board of Ethics was on Monday forced to table action on its own complaint against the city's director of emergency management due to a citation error by board Chairman K. Robert Lewis.

The Board of Ethics filed a complaint against Reid Burdick on Dec. 8, claiming he broke the city's Code of Ethics when he went public with his own ethics board complaint before board members had a chance to review it.

If the board's Dec. 8 complaint is sound, Burdick could face a $10,000 fine per violation of the ethics code. But before the investigation can continue, the board must first amend its original complaint.

Burdick's attorney, Jason Burdick - Reid Burdick's son - and four board members met Monday to discuss the issue. That's when they learned Lewis, the board's chairman, had mistakenly cited the wrong section of the city's Code of Ethics in the board's complaint, forcing the board to postpone any further action.

The complaint will be amended at the board's Jan. 23 meeting, Lewis said.

The board claims Burdick made his September complaint against four board members available to The Day's Editorial Page Editor Paul Choiniere and that Burdick knew or should have known that violating the confidentiality provisions of the "Complaint Process" constitutes a deliberate violation of the Code of Ethics.

As a city employee, Burdick is required to be aware of the ethics code and acknowledge his compliance with a signature on file, the board said.

Burdick has said he submitted his complaint as a private citizen and not as a city employee and that it is his free will to engage in political speech.

In his complaint, Burdick said board members Eunice Waller, K. Robert Lewis, Brian Giesing, Sheila McCarthy and Dennis Downing should recuse themselves from investigating a complaint lodged by police Chief Margaret Ackley against then-city councilor and mayoral candidate Michael Buscetto III. That investigation has since been dropped.

Burdick's original complaint states that the board members would be unable to "fairly decide Mr. Buscetto's matter because of their own personal and/or political interests," according to a recent letter sent to the city by Jason Burdick.

j.hanckel@theday.com