New London – The Board of Ethics has postponed a hearing scheduled for Monday in which Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio was slated to defend himself against an ethics complaint.

New London resident Reid Burdick filed the complaint after Finizio called Burdick’s comments at an April 20 City Council meeting “homophobic.” In light of Finizio’s loss in the Democratic primary and citing the cost to taxpayers, Burdick has since asked to withdraw the complaint.

The Board of Ethics, in a meeting held Friday evening, did not take up Burdick’s request to withdraw and instead granted a motion for a continuance filed by Finizio’s attorney, Kim Carlson McGee.

Ethics board Chairman K. Robert Lewis, in a notice dated that same day, said the board voted unanimously to postpone the hearing to an undetermined future date.

McGee had requested a host of documents prior to the hearing, including records of the meetings in which the complaint was discussed by the board. When discussing a complaint, the board’s meetings are held behind closed doors and without notice to the public unless and until the board makes a probable cause finding.

McGee, in a letter to the ethics board requesting the continuance, said Finizio reserves the right to file preliminary motions that could include “a motion for reconsideration of the findings of probable cause, a motion for recusal, a motion for reconsideration and new hearing, and a motion to dismiss the proceedings in total.”

The complaint stems from a City Council meeting in which Burdick, a frequent Finizio critic, voiced his opposition to a proposed tax increase and said, “How do you accept a 12½ percent increase from a guy who doesn’t own a house or a car?”

Burdick went on to say, “Wouldn’t it be great if we all had an Uncle Henry?”

Finizio’s response was to call Burdick’s comments “homophobic,” a reference, Finizio said, to the fact his home is under his husband’s name.

Both McGee and Burdick’s attorney, Jason Burdick, who is Reid Burdick's son, also have questioned the legitimacy of the probable cause findings by the Board of Ethics and raised the issue of a possible bias based on the political makeup of the group.

The Ethics Board voted unanimously that probable cause existed that Finizio was in violation of three sections of the City’s Code of Ethics regarding policy, standards of conduct and treatment of the public.

Members of the board voting on the probable cause findings were Chairman Lewis, Constance Fields, Dennis Downing and David Hersant, according to Lewis. Board member Minerva Dudley-Clark was absent. Fields is the lone Democrat among the voting members; the rest are Republicans. Republican Karen Paul has since been appointed to the board.

McGee encouraged Downing to recuse himself from all further proceedings, noting he is endorsed by the Republican Town Committee for a spot on the City Council.

Jason Burdick, in the letter to the Ethics Board, also raised the issue of “political appointees expected to render a decision regarding the ethics of a politician.”

“Perhaps the Board of Ethics should look inward at its own policies, procedures, and ethics to ensure its decisions are beyond reproach,” Jason Burdick wrote last week.

g.smith@theday.com

Twitter: @SmittyDay