Candidate misrepresents role in Utica business

A Democratic state Senate candidate has misrepresented her interest in a Utica-based medical practice.

Maria Pavelock, who is seeking the 47th Senate District seat, told the Watertown Daily Times on April 27 that she had a business with her husband, Robert R., called Digestive Disease Medicine.

But Ms. Pavelock is divorced and is not a co-owner of the business, according to Bruce A. Smith, a Syracuse attorney who represents the practice. The Clinton resident received a security interest in the limited liability company that leases an office to the medical practice as part of her her divorce settlement, the attorney said.

Mr. Smith warned the candidate in letter Friday to "immediate cease and desist" from calling herself a co-owner, saying such a representation "is deceptive, misleading and potentially damaging to the business."

Despite that warning, Ms. Pavelock continued to assert she was a co-owner.

"I'm not a partner. I'm just a co-owner," she said Friday.

After Ms. Pavelock and Mr. Smith talked Tuesday, the candidate refined her story.

"The fact is: I was part of a family business. I was never a medical doctor. I was never a partner. But I have built, with my ex-husband, a business that is still in existence," she said Wednesday. "There are things that make me a co-owner, but there are things that make me not."

Mr. Smith said he was satisified after talking to Ms. Pavelock that she would not continue to represent herself as a co-owner of the business.

"I was satisfied she was not out there representing these things and that going forward she has to be careful what she says," he said Thursday. "She has to come up with a better way to explain what her role is and what her role had historically been in running the business and her interest."