Harlem Community Board Chair Used Position To Help Client: City

HARLEM, NY — The former chair of a Harlem Community Board 10 committee was forced to pay a $2,000 fine after using his position on the board to help one of his private clients, the city Conflicts of Interest Board announced.

John Lynch, brother of Patrolmen's Benevolent Association leader Patrick Lynch, was fined for sending two letters using the Community Board 10 letterhead to recommend the State Liquor Authority grant a liquor license to a client of his private law firm in 2017, according to the Conflicts of Interest Board. Lynch served as chair of Community Board 10's economic development committee and the board's first vice-chair since 2016.

Lynch was hired by the Harlem restaurant after the business came before Community Board 10 seeking a liquor license, according to the Conflicts of Interest Board. As a lawyer, Lynch should be held to a "high level of accountability," the board wrote.

"The City’s conflicts of interest law prohibits public servants from using their positions or

taking official actions to benefit their associates, which includes legal clients, and from
using City resources for that non-City purpose," the Conflicts of Interest Board wrote in its ruling.

The board made it clear that Lynch's letters on behalf of his client "were not significantly different" from letters he would typically send as a community board committee chair and that Community Board 10 supported his client's application before he was hired to represent them.

Given that Community Board 10 supported the restaurant's application before Lynch started working for the business, his misuse of the board letterhead "absolutely was not intentional," Lynch told the Daily News.

"The restaurant got the same treatment as any other restaurant," Lynch told the paper

Lynch resigned from his position on the board's economic development committee following the city Conflicts of Interest Board ruling, according to the report.