Prohibits trustees and members of a board of education from voting on matters before the board which affect a family member of the trustee or board member who is either employed by the board of education or school district or who would be financially impacted by such vote.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
 
BILL NUMBER: A3642
SPONSOR: Ramos
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to prohibiting trustees
and members of a board of education from voting on matters before the
board which affect a family member of the trustee or board member
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This bill would amend the education law in relation to prohibiting trus-
tees and members of the board of education from voting on any matter
before them that would affect a person, financially or otherwise, who is
related to the trustee or member of the board of education.
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of the bill amends the education law by adding a new section,
2104, which prohibits trustees and members of board of education to vote
on any matter before the board when such vote shall affect a person who
is related to the trustee or member and such person is employed by the
board of education or school district or would be financially impacted.
by such vote.
Section 2 provides the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Nepotism, defined as "favoritism shown to relatives or close friends by
those in power". Across New York State, there have been incidents of
nepotism by trustees and members of the board of education and when
nepotism exists in our school system it undermines the public's trust.
Never is this worse than when a member of a board of education or trus-
tee can cast a vote on a matter that that directly affects a relative of
theirs that works for the board of education or the school district
which they preside over. This goes for matters that are financial or in
other ways personally beneficial. A trustee or school board member
should not be allowed to vote for a raise or other such matters, for a
family member that works for the district that they've been elected to
represent.
Such was the case in the Brentwood School district where a trustee of
the board of education attempted to create a new six-figure job position
for a family member while the school district was experiencing fiscal
hardships.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A.3857 of 2021-22 referred to education
A.6691 of 2019-20 referred to education
A.5944 of 2017-18 referred to education
A.9849 of 2015-16 referred to education
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: None
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3642
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 3, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. RAMOS, COOK -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to prohibiting trustees
and members of a board of education from voting on matters before the
board which affect a family member of the trustee or board member
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 2104
2 to read as follows:
3 § 2104. Voting by trustees and members of board of education. No trus-
4 tee or member of a board of education shall vote on any matter before
5 the board when such vote shall affect a person who is related to the
6 trustee or member and such person is employed by the board of education
7 or school district or would be financially impacted by such vote.
8 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08234-01-3