Jessica Soule

The Citizen

AUBURN - Corporation counsel Thomas Leone's New Year wish came true during the Thursday City Council meeting - all the councilors agreed on what to do with his position.

Mayor Timothy Lattimore and the four councilors voted to contract with John Rossi & Associates to provide legal services until the city manager appoints a permanent corporation counsel.

John Rossi, Earle Thurston, Charles Marangola and Andrew Fusco joined together to offer their services to the city. The independent lawyers proposed to work 35 hours a week for $8,500 a month.

Thursday marked Leone's last city meeting. On Tuesday, he will step into the elected role of Cayuga County judge.

“Although this city has its problems, as any city our size in this state does, my New Year's wish is ... for you gentlemen to get together, put the little differences aside and move forward,” Leone said in his unprepared good-bye speech.

Leone acted as city manager because Interim City Manager Michael Long was out of the office.

“This is not the avenue I wanted to take but the city does need to be represented,” Councilor Matt Smith said.

The majority of council agreed the permanent manager should hire corporation counsel. Smith, who has pushed to bring a vote before council by early next year to hire a manager, predicts council won't install a permanent one until the end of February.

“We appreciate you stepping up to give us a proposal during this difficult time,” Councilor David Dempsey told Rossi. He asked Rossi about consistency as four workers will rotate shifts through the week.

Rossi responded that they will communicate between them and work with everyone's particular expertise.

“In any event, we're all just a phone call away,” Rossi assured the council.

Rossi and his three associates will meet with Leone and possibly Long to discuss current litigation. They will begin to staff the office Tuesday.

The Auburn attorney earlier interviewed for the job of corporation counsel, but said he is no longer interested in the position, other than on an interim basis.

“I'm not looking for a full-time job,” he said, adding he wanted to use his background in government affairs.

Lattimore earlier pushed the council to examine the office of corporation counsel as a place to begin restructuring. However, Councilor Thomas McNabb rebuffed his ideas of hiring two part-time lawyers in place of the current full-time position of assistant corporation counsel.

The mayor wondered why his suggestion to hire a firm months ago was shot down, but now a legal firm received an unanimous vote after a move by the three Democratic councilors to rescind their decision to allow Long to appoint a corporation counsel.

“These citizens of Auburn were absolutely upstaged by politics,” Lattimore said.

In other news:

- The council unanimously agreed to change the charter to detail the ban of drivers turning left from Standart Avenue into the Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru. Auburn Police Chief Gary Giannotta went to the business and saw the traffic problems caused by vehicles backed up into the intersections of Standart and Grant Avenue.

Staff writer Jessica Soule can be contacted at 253-5311, ext 267 or jessica.soule@lee.net