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Another Community Board 2 Member Fined For Taking Soho House Freebie

 Sean Sweeney must pay the city's ethics board more than $2,000 for accepting a free membership to Soho House, pictured here, while he was the chair of the community board's Landmarks Committee.
Sean Sweeney must pay the city's ethics board more than $2,000 for accepting a free membership to Soho House, pictured here, while he was the chair of the community board's Landmarks Committee.
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MEATPACKING DISTRICT — The city's Conflict of Interest Board is fining a longtime Community Board 2 member more than $3,000 for accepting freebies from a private Meatpacking District club, records show.

CB2 member Sean Sweeney dined for free with his girlfriend at Soho House in March 2005, according to COIB records, after giving the club's president his opinion on the club's application to make changes to the roof of their landmarked building. Sweeney was also given a free one-year membership to the club.

The COIB fine was first reported by Capital New York.

Sweeney told the ethics board that he brought his girlfriend along when Soho House President Chris Sade asked him to come by to discuss "whether the proposed [roof] work would comply with relevant regulations and what would be the opinion of the CB 2 Landmarks committee," which Sweeney chaired at the time.

Sweeney is the second CB2 member to be penalized by the city for accepting gifts from SoHo House. Former CB2 member Jo Hamilton was censured last year for retaining a free membership at the club for 10 years, and had to pay the city nearly $11,000.

Sweeney, a SoHo resident, is still an active CB2 member and co-chair of the committee. He also runs the SoHo Alliance, a neighborhood advocacy group. 

Sweeney told the COIB that he and his girlfriend "planned to have a dinner date nearby that evening," and after Sade gave them a tour of his club, Sweeney's girlfriend — who was not identified in the report — "complained aloud that she was hungry and requested that we both go to dinner soon, as I had promised her."

"Sade suggested that we have dinner as his guest, and I accepted his offer," Sweeney told the ethics board. Sade gave him an application to join the club during dinner, Sweeney said, and Sweeney was never charged a registration fee or invoiced for the membership.

Sweeney, who goes by the name Sean but is referred to in documents by his legal name, John, told the COIB he never asked for the free dinner, or the free membership, and that he recused himself from voting on some matters concerning Soho House while he was a club member.

It was not clear whether he voted on the application to modify the club's roof. 

Sweeney will have to pay the city $3,192 — the cost of the one-year membership he got for free, which would have been $1,192, plus a $2,000 penalty.

In their written decision to fine Sweeney, the COIB said they did not believe Sweeney had done anything corrupt, or that his accepting the free membership "resulted in an unwarranted advantage to SoHo House."

Sweeney's free membership lasted only one year. He remained a member in 2006 but paid the club's fee. 

Soho House, Sweeney, and current CB 2 chair Tobi Bergman did not respond to requests for comment.