City assistant attorney leads probe of school board pair accused of ethics violations

From left, school board member Sarah Harrington, police commissioner John Larochelle and city councilor Dan Fitzpatrick (city of Rochester screenshot)

ROCHESTER - The groundwork for the city's handling of an ethics complaint began on Tuesday with city councilor, former Rochester city manager and state rep Dan Fitzpatrick being installed as chairman of the Ethics Board following a vote by Police Commissioner John Larochelle and school board member Sarah Harrington.
The investigation was spurred after school board member Steven Cusumano lodged two complaints against fellow school board members Karen Stokes and Sandra Keans.
Under the new Board of Ethics rules, their first action was to pick an ethics investigation officer to conduct a thorough probe of all complaints filed against Stokes and Keans.

Assistant City Attorney and ethics investigative officer Andrew Kroeckel

Following a suggestion by City Manager Katie Ambrose, the board unanimously chose Assistant City Attorney Andrew Kroeckel with no discussion.
Ambrose also installed city compliance officer and former Rochester police chief Gary Boudreau to assist Kroeckel, including in the interview process. Boudreau is currently a compliance officer with Rochester's Building & Licensing Services.
As per the current ethics ordinance, once the Board of Ethics receives Kroeckel's findings they will render their decision and forward it to the school board, according to Ambrose.
The complaints against Stokes accuse her of "abusive conduct or verbal attacks upon the character or motives of other board members; not practicing civility and decorum in discussions and debate; and demeaning or personally attacking an employee regarding the employee's job performance in public."
Keans' complaint cites dissemination of privileged information.

The newly formed Board of Ethics was enacted following the 2022 City Council trial of former councilman Chris Rice, which many residents and council members saw as a travesty of justice fraught with inequities, lack of transparency and due process.