Rochester’s Board of Ethics met Tuesday evening, finding no violation by Mayor Lovely Warren in City Hall’s hosting of an Uber job fair earlier this year.
A rival candidate for mayor filed the complaint. Rachel Barnhart, who’s running a Democratic primary against the mayor, said the city showed favoritism to Uber with what was more a victory party than a job fair. She suggested it was because Warren’s former chief of staff now works for the lobbying firm hired by Uber.
The board said it will look into updating the guidelines for such events, but found no violation of the city ethics code.
Mayor Warren says this validated her ongoing efforts to bring more jobs to city residents. She called Barnhart’s complaint a political stunt. Barnhart issued her own statement saying the ethics board is made up mostly of people who donate to Mayor Warren and work for the city. She says they “twisted themselves into a pretzel” to find no violation. Barnhart called Warren’s job fair a political stunt.