Tonight, the Common Council passed a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into agreements with Tabner, Ryan & Keniry to provide legal counsel to the Planning Board. According to the resolution, William Ryan, senior partner in the firm, will handle the Article 78 proceedings against the Planning Board, and Andrew Clark, partner, will be counsel to the Planning Board.
In the roll call vote, Mohammed Rony (Second Ward) abstained, saying that he wanted information about why the change was being made. At that point, Claire Cousin (Fifth Ward) asked if a resolution could be tabled after the roll call vote had already begun. Council president Margaret Morris said Cousin could move to table the resolution but explained new legal counsel needed to be in place before the Planning Board's February meeting. Cousin made the motion to table, but it failed, and the vote went ahead. All members of the Council voted to approve the resolution except Rony, who abstained. After the vote, Cousin reiterated that she wanted Mayor Joe Ferris to explain to the Council why the change was being made. Morris told her, because it was a personnel matter, Ferris's explanation would have to be presented in executive session.
The public may never know Ferris's reasons for wanting to replace Victoria Polidoro as legal counsel to the Planning Board, but here is some background that may or may not be pertinent. There are currently two Article 78 proceedings against the Planning Board relating to two projects that were before the Planning Board during Polidoro's tenure as counsel: Mill Street Lofts and the Colarusso dock. Also, during the Planning Board review for a conditional use permit for Colarusso's dock operations, Polidoro steadfastly maintained that Hudson's LWRP (Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan) was not legally binding, basing her unshakeable opinion on what Gossips characterized as "code detritus" but might be thought of as a scrivener's error.
It is not atypical, when there is a change of mayor, that there is also a change in legal counsel, not only in corporation counsel (i.e., city attorney) but also in counsel to the regulatory boards. In fact, it has pretty much been standard practice in Hudson for at least thirty years. What seems atypical here is the expectation by some members of the Common Council that the mayor explain his reasons for engaging different attorneys.
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It's a bit of an awkward situation, no? If Joe thinks the new law firm will provide better representation for the city, this would then also come to bear in these two article 78 petitions the city has to defend.
ReplyDeleteI don't know exactly where Joe stands with respect to these two petitions but a municipality normally wouldn't want to throw them and should be interested in defending against them successfully.