Patricia R. Doxsey reports in The Daily Freeman that on Dec. 31 the Ulster County Board of Ethics fined Legislator Joseph Maloney $7,000 for violations of the county Ethics Law. The Board of Ethics recommended Maloney be suspended for three months. He is "either unwilling or unable to differentiate between ethical and unethical conduct," the board's decision said. The board said it would waive the fines of Maloney resigned by Jan. 10. “This is just outrageous,” Maloney said, refusing to resign. “This is nothing but politics." The board says Maloney, "voted in committee on a labor agreement that covered his wife’s employment; voted for that same contract in the full Legislature; appeared before a legislative committee on which Maloney does not sit to lobby for more resources for the county Comptroller’s Office, where his wife works; introduced legislation to allow the comptroller to appoint a member to the Board of Ethics; and argued in a committee meeting that the Comptroller’s Office shouldn’t be involved in an audit of health services at the county jail." Read the full story in The Daily Freeman.