Westchester Judge Awaits Ethics Ruling (MORE, CLICK HERE)

Judge awaits panel's ethics decision
by Jonathan Bandler - The Journal News - February 29, 2008

MOUNT VERNON - Associate City Judge Adam Seiden has represented several development projects before the Mount Vernon planning and zoning boards in apparent violation of ethics guidelines for judges.

Seiden said yesterday that he was unfamiliar with opinions by the New York State Bar Association's Committee on Professional Ethics and the state court system's Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics until the issue was brought to his attention Friday by The Journal News. He said he has written to the advisory committee asking it to reconsider. "But if they uphold (the opinion), I can't do that work and I won't do that work," he said, adding that he would not take on any new clients until he heard back from the committee.

In 1992, the state bars' committee directed that part-time judges should not appear before zoning and planning boards in municipalities where they serve because of the potential for the appearance of impropriety. The Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics issued similar opinions in 1990 and 1998. The concern was that public confidence in the integrity of the judiciary could be damaged if a lawyer appearing before those boards was also a judge within the same governmental entity.

Seiden stepped down from the Mount Vernon Board of Education in 1995 to become an associate city judge. He is also a past president of the Westchester County Bar Association. He said he began doing land-use work only in recent years and probably has represented 10 to 12 clients before the boards during that time. He recently won zoning board approval for several variances that would permit a 14-story, 150-foot apartment building on East Third Street, where the zoning prohibits buildings taller than 30 feet.

That ruling is being challenged in state Supreme Court by a neighbor who contends the project was rushed through without appropriate review by the city.

Full-time judges may not practice as lawyers, but part-time judges can. Seiden said it never occurred to him to ask whether he could be a judge and appear before the planning or zoning boards because the City Court has no jurisdiction over them. "I never even thought about it before," he said.

He said it was not uncommon for his clients to come before him on other matters when he is a judge and that he recuses himself. The opinions warning judges not to take on clients in land-use cases in their communities are advisory and neither the state bar nor the advisory committee has enforcement power.

Violations could be reported to the state Commission on Judicial Conduct.