Town hires firm that handled cases against municipality

Town Board members are moving into 2022 with questions about the appointment of a legal firm that represented cases against the municipality.

The concern was raised during a reorganization meeting Tuesday, with Councilman Michael Boms asking whether appointing Gordon and Svenson would be a conflict of interest.

“How is that going to deal with the fact that Gordon and Svenson also represents two complainants against the town?” he asked.

“They are representing people who are suing the town,” Boms said. “So it appears to me they are going to be sitting on both sides of the table. One’s on the defendant table and one’s on the plaintiff table.”

Boms said after the meeting that the cases the firms handled involved land use and zoning lawsuits against the town.

Attorney David Gordon, who previously was a county legislative counsel, said he would recuse himself from any legal issue connected to the previous cases.

“We’re looking forward to working with the town on environmental matters,” he said.

“We don’t expect the same matters to come up again,” Gordon said. “If they do I’ll obviously recuse myself but as long as it’s not a related matter, there’s no conflict.”

Supervisor Melinda McKnight responded that there is no conflict because one case was withdrawn and the other now involves a different law firm.

“They’ll recuse themselves on those particular situations,” she said.

The board also designated the firm of Roemer, Wallens, Gold and Mineaux as a second town attorney.

Other appointments and designations included Bank of Greene County as official depository; Sickler, Torchia, Allen and Churchill as bookkeeper, payroll manager, and accountant; James Decker as town historian; SPCA as dog control officer; Brinnier and Larios, Peak Engineers, Crawford and Associates, and Tighe and Bond as engineers; Javier Perez Sr. As transfer station department head with Daniel Perez, Javier Perez Jr., Josue Zafra, and Gabriel Perez appointed as attendants; and Clerk Judy Mayhon as records management officer and Charleen Roy-Cornelison as deputy town clerk.

The board set its Town Board meetings for 7 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month.