New London — Powerless to vote on matters of any significance for the past two years because of a dearth of active members, the city’s Ethics Board has again called on the City Council to appoint more members.

Ethics Board Chairman K. Robert Lewis, earlier this month, asked the City Council to act on applications pending with the council’s Administration Committee. He said the committee has overlooked candidates even as it has filled vacancies on other boards and commissions, which “lends a air of deliberateness to the inaction.”

The Ethics Board, with seven seats, currently has just four active members but needs five votes to render an advisory opinion or conduct an ethics complaint hearing – two of the main charges of the board.

Lewis is joined on the commission by Marie Gravell, Dennis Downing and Karen Paul. Board member David Hersant has been sidelined from an active role on the board because of illness.

Lewis and other members of the board, who met recently to discuss their plight, said it was their hope the delay in appointing members was not politically motivated. The city council is made up of six Democrats and one Republican. Gravell is the only Democrat on the Ethics Board.

By ordinance, the Ethics Board should have seven members, no more than four members of any one party.

Lewis said the failure of the council to make appointments equates to lack of proper oversight on behalf of the citizens of New London.

“If I applied and knew (the Ethics Board) needed members, I would want to know why they’re not accepting me,” Lewis said.

Councilor Efrain Dominguez, chairman of the Administration Committee, was not immediately available to comment. In an email to Lewis, Dominguez said there was an Administration Committee meeting scheduled for May 6 to consider new members.

“Please be assured that there is no deliberateness to the inaction on my part or the city council,” Dominguez said in the email. “I was just waiting to be done with all department budget meetings.”

Judith Kierys, a Democrat, and John Maney, who is unaffiliated, have had applications pending since January. Newer applicants include Greg Kotecki, a Democrat, and Yasmine Webb, a Republican, both of whom submitted applications in March.

Downing said if more people knew the Ethics Board met on a regular basis – which they have no reason to do now – the public might be more inclined to raise questions before the board.

The last documented time the board met and rendered a decision was on Jan. 24, 2017 when it unanimously ruled that Mayor Michael Passero’s two-day trip to Washington, D.C., for Railroad Day, with expenses paid, was compliant with the city’s code of ethics and not a conflict of interest.

Ethics complaints to the board are in many cases not made public unless a finding of probable cause is found. Once probable cause is found the complaint becomes public.

Public employees cannot accept fees for an appearance or participation iin an event in their official capacity but are not prevented from receiving necessary expenses.

Lewis said Felix Reyes, the director of the city’s Office of Development and Planning, recently asked for an opinion on whether becoming a corporator with Dime Bank was in violation of any ethics codes. Reyes said he wanted to be sure there was no hint of a conflict of interest.

Lewis said once the board has an appropriate amount of members his hope is to have regular monthly meetings.

g.smith@theday.com