Common Council Should Get Own Attorney

The Kingston common council is considering adding $25,000 to the 2015 budget to hire their own lawyer to advise them on matters, we think this is a great idea. Putting aside the fact that current Corporation Counsel Andrew Zweben has shown zero fiduciary duty to the common council but we must ask how can you blame him?  He serves two masters, two completely separate forms of government:  the executive, where he advises Gallo on the day to day issues of governing. And the legislative where he advises the council members as to why they should get in line with the executive branch of government.

The legislature of Ulster County does not rely on advice from County Attorney Bea Havrenak to provide them legal advice, there would be a clear conflict of interest in them doing so.  Zweben being the City's lawyer and Gallo's very own attack poodle can not also represent and advise the Common Council impartially. The same conflict of interest that applies to the county applies to the City and for the same reasons obviously. The executive and legislative branches of government are separate and should have separate representation. The council as a whole in Kingston are equal to and just as powerful as the mayor, that's the way our city charter is set up. It is the council's right to have an attorney that will give them objective advice and city attorney Andrew Zweben and Mayor Shayne Gallo, both lawyers should support this measure and respect it.

Majority Leader Matt Dunn had this to say in the Freeman today:

 “It is important, from time to time, for the council to get its own separate advice,” he said. “We have had a host of issues that have come up during the Gallo administration that would have been prudent to receive advice from an attorney that did not have to answer to the mayor.”

This hasn't been done in the past because for a city with 25,000 people there is a certain level of community and trust. Everyone knows the local Mayor, the majority of members of the council grew up with one another and they trust that the advice they get from the city attorney appointed by the Mayor is in the best interest of the city and that it will be fair and impartial. It never should have been that way but that is the basic reason as to why for all these years it has been that way.  As observers who have followed city government for over eleven years, we can honestly say we have never witnessed a Mayor fight with members of the common council with such viciousness as the current administration and we have never witnessed a corporation counsel that has had such an adversarial relationship with the common council as Zweben has had with this one. Not to say that there have never been heated disagreements, but none not even the most contentious ones we've witnessed during the late Mayor Gallo's administration or that of Mayor Sottile's tenure come anywhere close to what we have seen the last three years.  Furthermore never in the history of the city have he had a corp council this incompetent since, well, the Heitzman years ;)

The votes are there to do this, Alderman Brian Seche who proposed this law is a Gallo ally and is doing for a change what is in the best interest for his Ward and the city and we applaud him. While we despise Zweben and think he is a disaster, the common council should never set policy or pass amendments based on their like or dislike of a particular person. This amendment should have been passed years ago and to Seche's credit he talked about this when he was on the council way back when, he was right than and he is right now. Simply put, it's the right thing to do. The Gallo administration has just illuminated the reason as to why it should be done.

Post script: Is there anything at all that Alderwoman Debbie Brown won't support Mayor Gallo and Andrew Zweben on?