WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – The Watertown Ethics Board has cleared Council Members Lisa Ruggiero and Cliff Olney of any ethical violations.
An ethics complaint was filed on November 18th by Mayor Sarah Pierce and Council Members Robert Kimball and Ben Shoen. Ruggiero and Olney were accused of forwarding and “blind carbon copying” city emails to a local developer.
The ethics board met Friday morning and gave the opinion that the charges against Ruggiero were inconclusive. Chairman Stephen Jennings said, “The board of ethics finds no conclusive evidence for a complaint filed on November 18th of 2025, whereby Council Member Lisa A. Ruggiero violated the code of ethics.”
Ruggiero says the matter will leave a black eye on the city.
“The fact that I’ve had to pay for legal fees, which are going to be expensive, but I knew that I was not going to roll over on this. I needed to be clear of this, I needed my name cleared, and thank goodness that happened,” she said.
As for Olney, the board found the evidence against him was also not conclusive. Jennings said that while Olney did not clearly breach the code of ethics, his behavior raises questions.
“The act of forwarding and blind copying city-related emails to a certain external party on more than 30 occasions creates the appearance of impropriety, which raises serious questions of Council Member Olney’s independence. Accordingly, while no definitive violation is found, the board of ethics deems the conduct by Council Member Olney inconsistent with best ethical practice,” said Jennings.
Olney called the process outrageous.
“I can’t see any way that they justify this. We don’t know how much it costs. We don’t know how many hours were involved. It was done mostly behind closed doors, secretly.”
In a statement, Mayor Sarah Pierce wrote, “While some of the conduct at issue may not technically violate the City’s current ethics code, I believe it clearly falls outside the boundaries Watertown residents should expect from those elected to serve them. This includes sharing internal City communications, forwarding legal materials, blind-copying a developer on constituent correspondence, and engaging in a level of coordination that was never disclosed to the public.”
She also emphasized the “urgent need” to strengthen and modernize the city’s code of ethics.
Council Member Kimball says he’s satisfied with how the process went.
“It is definitely time to move on from all of this and just deal with the issues we need to deal with,” he said.
Shoen said he respects the board’s decision and appreciates its time and effort.
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