The City of Peekskill Ethics Board has dismissed a referral from the Common Council to investigate alleged violations from Councilman Ramon Fernandez in a letter from the board dated Dec. 23, 2024.
Fernandez was named by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct as one of the people former Peekskill City Court Judge Reginald Johnson favored by voiding a moving traffic violation in 2018 for a friend of Fernandez.
The issue was referred to the Ethics Board in September 2024, however, in a three-page letter obtained by the Herald from Fernandez, the board said their authority to investigate alleged violations in Peekskill is limited to those that occurred within six years.
“The pertinent facts alleged in the Amended Formal Written Complaint occurred in June and July of 2018, more than six years prior to the September 25, 2024 referral of this matter to the Ethics Board,” the letter reads. “Thus, the Ethics Board is without the authority to conduct an investigation into the alleged violation. Accordingly, the matter is hereby dismissed.”
That six-year time limit was missed by a mere two months. The statute of limitations for the alleged violations expired on July 27, 2024, two months before the council referred it to the Ethics Board.
In September Mayor Vivan McKenzie and a majority of the Common Council called for Fernandez’s resignation.
Fernandez told the Herald he received the letter Monday night from the Board of Ethics announcing his case was dismissed.
“People were trying to play dirty politics,” the potential mayoral contender said on Thursday. “And I believe in divine justice. People try to run for re-election without an opponent. Now it’s going to be different.”
Fernandez questioned why the City of Peekskill has not yet issued a press release announcing the Common Council’s referral has been dismissed.
“It is very interesting because they did not post that in the same way that they did the [press release calling for Fernandez’s resignation],” Fernandez said. “They didn’t use their power. They didn’t use their communication.”
However, according to several Common Council members reached by the Herald, the council did not receive the Ethics Board letter Fernandez did. Those council members declined to comment due to not having the letter, including Mayor Vivan McKenzie.
“The reason why I don’t have [the letter] is because Councilman Fernandez [was] the person of interest in that complaint,” McKenzie said. “So he’s the only one that was given that document so that’s why I don’t have the document and I can’t speak to it.”
According to the August 2024 complaint from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, in March 2018 Mateo Piragua, a family friend of Fernandez, was charged for allegedly operating a motor vehicle without a driver’s license and while using a cellphone, then in the following June he was charged with allegedly operating without a driver’s license and failing to stop at a stop sign.
The complaint alleged that Fernandez met with former Judge Johnson, expressing his view that the tickets were unjust and that Piragua was a good person. According to the state report Fernandez understood from Johnson’s response that the tickets would be dismissed.
On July 27, Johnson dismissed the tickets in chambers, off the record, outside the presence of the parties, without notice to or the consent of either the Peekskill City Prosecutor or Peekskill Police Department which issued the tickets, the complaint reads.
The Board of Ethics met to discuss the alleged violations on Dec. 4, 2024 after receiving an email from former Corporation Counsel acting on the behalf of the Common Council on Sept. 25.
That referral letter cited a code stating “[n]o City official or employee shall use or attempt to use his or her official position to give or secure privileges or exemptions for himself/herself or others not available to others.”
It also referred to City Code Chapter 48 saying it is the power and duty of the Board of Ethics “[t]o investigate all complaints and referrals concerning possible violations of this chapter and Article 18 of the General Municipal Law.”
However, as pointed out in the Board of Ethics decision, this same code states: “the statute of limitations for any and alleged violations of this chapter shall be six years from the date of the alleged violation.”
Board of Ethics chairperson Joseph Brady said that just because the case was dismissed doesn’t mean Fernandez did or did not do the alleged violation, but that they can’t investigate it.
“We didn’t take the position one way or the other. There was no hearing, because as we collected the information as the memo says it, we have to have it in our hands within six years of the date of the occurrence. And we did not get it.”
The letter from the Ethics Board was sent to the city’s corporation counsel. Members of the Board of Ethics are: Joseph Brady, chair, Malvina Dimeas, Jacqueline Gares, Clayton Keene and Jean Moczarski.
“We have to have talks about Peekskill,” Fernandez told the Herald. “We have to talk about improving the service. We have to have talks about safety and all the kind of things that really matter. That’s my point. And then people have to decide [who] they want for leading the city in a democratic process.”
In a statement posted to social media, Fernandez thanked family, friends, district leaders, community leaders, the Hispanic Democrats of Westchester, residents of Peekskill, who he said with their prayers, support, and words helped him resist and have the strength to move forward.
