SYRACUSE - Voting on the Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES new campus will continue as planned today, but it's not the end of the project's legal battle.

State Supreme Court Justice Norman W. Seiter Jr. decided Monday to deny the Skaneateles school board's request for an injunction on the vote, saying the vote would cause Skaneateles no unnecessary harm. He set another court date for Jan. 27 to hear the rest of the case against BOCES.

"If this referendum turns out to be a no vote, this all goes away," Seiter said as he delivered his decision Monday afternoon. "If this is a yes vote, we will have further arguments."

The Skaneateles board of education filed its lawsuit against BOCES Friday. A hearing on the injunction was expedited for it to be decided before today's referendum.

Seiter also requested that the state commissioner of education and attorney general be made parties in the lawsuit and that the bond counsel to be used for the Dormitory Authority project be asked their opinion on the funding option.

After hearing arguments from attorneys on both sides, Seiter agreed to mediate and see if this could be resolved without court action. He saw there were points Skaneateles and BOCES agreed upon, and mediating the matter would not further delay the building project.

"Skaneateles has indicated it supports BOCES," Seiter said. "It's all about money, frankly."

The Skaneateles Board of Education was seeking an injunction against today's vote, arguing that the $45.3 million required to finance the new campus was not split equitably among BOCES' nine component school districts, and that BOCES did not adequately explore all possible ways to finance the project before deciding to use the state Dormitory Authority.

"Skaneateles wants to support the BOCES facility," said Dennis O'Hara, lawyer for the Skaneateles board of education. "This is not about the programs. It's about responsible spending of taxpayer money."

O'Hara argued that voters in other districts would essentially be deciding how much money would be spent in Skaneateles for the project. And with Skaneateles not having enough input on the project's funding alternatives, it would cause unjust harm on the district, he said.

"It would be a great travesty for the vote to go forward and for voters to not know the consequences of their vote or of staying home," he said.

Seiter's decision to allow the vote to continue did not surprise O'Hara, who was expecting an "uphill battle." But he's confident about the merits of Skaneateles' case in further proceedings.

Skaneateles Superintendent Walter Sullivan also expected today's ruling. He still saw it as a small victory because Seiter raised many issues in his ruling the district wanted to have discussed.

"It was great he raised the same issues we did," he said. "We didn't have particularly high hopes that the vote would not go forward."

BOCES lawyer Matt Fletcher disputed O'Hara's allegation that the wording of the referendum would limit BOCES to financing through the Dormitory Authority, which would increase the project's cost.

"This matter could be resolved even before the Dormitory Authority have to review the application, which hasn't even been made yet," Fletcher said.

Fletcher was pleased with Seiter's decision and looked ahead to today's vote.

"Ultimately, this is an issue that should be decided by the voters," he said.

Staff writer Liz Hacken can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 267 or elizabeth.hacken@lee.net