Ethics Board Finds a Business Card Don't

A business card may be a reminder for others about how to contact you, but when you're a City Council staffer, watch out! According to the Daily News, back in 2004, when he was deputy chief of staff to City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, Michael Nieves gave his card with "his cell phone number and the name and city phone number of another Council employee" to a tenant that a landlord had a dispute with. And apparently Nieves had a "prior business relationship" with the landlord. The city's Conflict of Interest Board said that Nieves did violate "the City Charter for employees to use city resources for private reasons," yet that was the extent of the reprimand.

This is what we can gather: Somehow the ethics board found out Nieves used his City Council card; we wonder if the tenant complained to someone that it felt like he was being intimidated by Nieves? And regarding the "use of city resources for private reasons," city employees, forget about taking that Bic pen home!