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State Dismisses City Complaint

By Jeffrey B. Cohen

June 19, 2009

Remember when the city fired Public Works Director Clarence Corbin because he hired a lobbyist? When it did so, the city also asked the Office of State Ethics to investigate.

This week, the state dismissed the cases the city brought two months ago against engineering consultant Richard L. Moffitt and his company, saying that there was "insufficient probable cause."

"It shows that the city made what I would call a spurious complaint against him," said Robert Ludgin, Moffitt's attorney. "Of much greater concern to [the city] than this flood improvement deadline is who's the lobbyist in Washington. I think they've got the whole thing out of whack."

Below you'll find the original complaint sent by Corporation Counsel John Rose, Moffitt's recent affidavit, and the letters of dismissal sent this week.

Sarah Barr, spokeswoman for Mayor Eddie A. Perez, said the city "reserves all of its options."

"The evidence that was collected during the evaluation doesn't support the allegations that Mr. Moffitt was lobbying," said Carol Carson, executive director of the state's ethics office. Besides which, she said, even had he been lobbying, he hadn't made enough money from the city for it to qualify as a violation of state law.