A good measure that this is an election year is the level of heat generated within the Auburn City Council chambers.
The latest go-around deals with whether or not it was proper for City Manager Mark Palesh to enter into agreements with local attorneys Andrew Fusco and John Rossi for legal services - a service they have, with others, been performing for some time.
The current burr under mayoral candidate and City Councilor David Dempsey and City Councilor Thomas McNabb, who is running for re-election, is that they were not told about the agreements back in July, when they were made. The councilors argue that the agreements are contracts.
The city's counsel, Rossi, who has a vested interest, parses the controversy to be about “retainers,” not contracts. Whatever the case, should the city council have been informed of the agreements, that in essence formalize what has been the city's standard operating procedure since winter? Yes.
Yet that, like most things at city hall, is not the full story. While neither of the two councilors criticized either attorney, what they really want is not so much to discuss the appointments, but to vote on them; something that is not only beyond their purview, legally, but is a role they have played politics with.
The current legal arrangement is a direct result of these two members of the council and fellow Democrat William Graney (who doesn't have a problem with the new agreements) involving themselves in the appointment process of a corporation counsel last December.
Where both critics would have a better standing is on their call, made at a forum last month, to do away with the current arrangement of consulting part-time corporation counsels and going back to a system of two full-time legal advisors to the manager, staff and council.
But what may be most interesting in this whole debate is the comment last week by Dempsey that “Open government is what makes government work. It's when decisions are made behind closed doors, that's when things go awry.”
An interesting quote to many who regularly watch city council meetings, from this councilor who consistently asks for executive sessions to discuss subjects weekly; about “personnel or the credit history of an individual or corporation.” Apparently going weekly behind closed doors, where the public doesn't know anything until there is shouting or a public brawl, is OK with him.
Inconsistency, sure. An election year - definitely.
Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com
The current burr under mayoral candidate and City Councilor David Dempsey and City Councilor Thomas McNabb, who is running for re-election, is that they were not told about the agreements back in July, when they were made. The councilors argue that the agreements are contracts.
The city's counsel, Rossi, who has a vested interest, parses the controversy to be about “retainers,” not contracts. Whatever the case, should the city council have been informed of the agreements, that in essence formalize what has been the city's standard operating procedure since winter? Yes.
Yet that, like most things at city hall, is not the full story. While neither of the two councilors criticized either attorney, what they really want is not so much to discuss the appointments, but to vote on them; something that is not only beyond their purview, legally, but is a role they have played politics with.
The current legal arrangement is a direct result of these two members of the council and fellow Democrat William Graney (who doesn't have a problem with the new agreements) involving themselves in the appointment process of a corporation counsel last December.
Where both critics would have a better standing is on their call, made at a forum last month, to do away with the current arrangement of consulting part-time corporation counsels and going back to a system of two full-time legal advisors to the manager, staff and council.
But what may be most interesting in this whole debate is the comment last week by Dempsey that “Open government is what makes government work. It's when decisions are made behind closed doors, that's when things go awry.”
An interesting quote to many who regularly watch city council meetings, from this councilor who consistently asks for executive sessions to discuss subjects weekly; about “personnel or the credit history of an individual or corporation.” Apparently going weekly behind closed doors, where the public doesn't know anything until there is shouting or a public brawl, is OK with him.
Inconsistency, sure. An election year - definitely.
Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com
The Citizens' Say
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cheeko wrote on Oct 9, 2007 1:14 PM: