GLENVILLE – A candidate for the top job in Glenville arranged to purchase items from his family hardware store and asked to be reimbursed by the city.
Still, as an elected official, the reimbursement would violate city and state ethical laws, the city’s top money watcher advised.
Glenville Controller Jason Cuthbert reported a series of purchases made by the city’s freeway service to Marty’s True Value in 2019 that he considered problematic. The hardware store then rebilled the city.
The city reimbursed Aragosa for a purchase of $ 45.47 made in January 2019, according to records obtained by The Times Union, approving the payment after considering it an “honest oversight.”
But Cuthbert later denied an invoice for six subsequent purchases totaling $ 500.17 for what he described as everyday items including mailboxes, shovels, snow brushes, rods, metal pins and cables.
These purchases, Cuthbert wrote to Aragosa in an October 18, 2019 email, were “readily available at businesses located in the town of Glenville that are not owned and operated by an elected official.”
Cuthbert told Aragosa he was already briefed on state and city ethics law when he signed his employment documents in 2017, and therefore should be familiar with the guidelines. Prior to 2019, the last time the city made a purchase from Marty’s True Value was in 2011, Cuthbert wrote.
Aragosa, a Democrat, is locked in a two-way contest with GOP city supervisor Chris Koetzle, who blasted his opponent for trying to circumvent ethics laws.
“This is obviously a blatant violation of the state’s ethical law and a violation of the city’s ethical law that he read, signed and understood – then violated it,” said Koetzle. “I think it shows bad judgment. I don’t believe he did it intentionally: I think he is a man of good character, but it is bad judgment.
Aragosa denied the wrongdoing and called the allegations a “pure political bubble — t”.
The city councilor said he was just trying to save taxpayer dollars when he was approached by the city’s superintendent of highways over a bulk mailbox order, an arrangement he said was similar to the one his company had previously negotiated with Schenectady County.
“The city would have saved money,†Aragosa said. “I was never paid, so in the end I donated those mailboxes to the city.”
Another purchase was a device used by commercial businesses for overnight heat monitoring, an item that is typically not worn by most retailers in the area, Aragosa said.
“I had it, they needed it, and they came to buy it,” Aragosa said, noting that his old hardware store on Van Vranken Avenue in Schenectady, which he and his brother sold last year for make way for the expansion of a Stewart, served several business entities and school districts in the capital region.
“Anyone who was a business entity within 25 miles of my store was a customer,†Aragosa said.
Koetzle has his own ethical conflicts to contend with, Aragosa said, noting that the supervisor’s son works at Mohawk Honda. City council, he said, previously acted on a project that benefited the concessionaire, including relocating a sewer line that allowed the franchise to construct a new building on Freemans Bridge Road.
Koetzle said it was not a vote, but rather a mechanism called “changing the terrain,†and challenged Aragosa to produce documents to back up his claims.
“My son wasn’t working there at the time,†Koetzle said. “It was an economic development project – and they paid for it.”
Koetzle then provided a copy of the resolution and noted that although a family member had worked at Mohawk Honda at the time, there is nothing in city policy that would identify this as anything untoward. or inappropriate.
Early voting begins on Saturday and continues until Sunday, October 31. Election day is November 2.
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