Syracuse’s Common Council shares the same legal counsel as the mayor’s administration. It’s a relationship that councilors said holds potential conflicts of interest.

Syracuse’s law department oversees the city’s legal affairs and is responsible for any suits, contracts or ordinances that the council deals with. The department doesn’t give advice in open council sessions, but city lawyers are present at every meeting, said Kristen Smith, the city’s appointed Corporation Counsel.

As part of the mayor’s senior staff, Smith oversees the work of the legal department, she said. The department advises the city on tax assessment and zoning matters. It also helps draft each contract and ordinance the council proposes, Smith said.

“I think the key point is that our client is the city. It’s not just the mayor, it’s not just the Common Council, it’s not just any one person or entity. It’s the city,” she said.

The city’s legal team usually has to side with the mayor’s administration over the council, said Councilor Patrick Hogan of the 2nd District. Hogan previously served as the city’s 2nd District councilor for eight years.

“In reality, it just makes common sense: he person who signs the bottom of your paycheck — you’re going to be more prone to going along with what he says than what some city councilor is going to say,” Hogan said.

The legal team has taken different sides from the mayor in some situations, Hogan said. The council clashed more frequently with the former mayor’s administration than it now does with Mayor Ben Walsh’s administration, he said.

The council sued former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner over a contentious computer use policy in 2015.

“That was a case where they disagreed about something and this office became an adversarial sort of position on each side, so we couldn’t present both sides,” Smith said.

The councilors also disputed the legal team’s call for a public referendum in 2011 to discuss an amendment to the city charter that would give councilors greater influence in zoning decisions.

Walsh said in a statement that he’s confident in the Corporation Counsel’s ability to represent the council and his administration fairly and effectively.

“As has been the case in the past, if the council determines a conflict of interest exists, they can exercise their authority to hire outside legal counsel,” Walsh said.

The council has never really explored its option to hire outside counsel, though it has the financial means to do so, said Councilor Joe Driscoll of the 5th District. Developing an independent counsel on retainer separate from the city’s legal team is one of the council’s priorities in its legislative agenda for the year, he said.

“I think it’s important that we have, maybe not for every issue but for certain issues, that we have another legal voice, another legal mind that we can reach out to that isn’t part of the administration,” Driscoll said.

The city’s legal team worked with Driscoll to craft a lead paint ordinance introduced this month. The group worked very well together on that legislation, partly because they had a clear, established roadmap of their intentions for it, Driscoll said.

The successful draft process was an example of effective work between the Common Council and Corporation Counsel as checks and balances upon each other, he said.

Though each issue presents its own challenge for the legal department, Smith views the department as a neutral party, she said.

“One thing that I always try to stress in this position is that we don’t make policy. Lawyers shouldn’t be making policy and we don’t view our role in our way,” Smith said.

Published on February 19, 2020 at 9:40 pm

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