2/20/08 - Study to look at creation of law department

Local attorney will examine ways to improve, restructure county attorney office

(As published by Cortland Standard, Evan Geibel reporting)

In an attempt to remove some of the politics from the appointment of the county attorney position, the Cortland County Legislature’s Budget and Finance Committee approved a proposal Tuesday morning that would hire a local attorney to investigate possibilities for a more formal law department.

The committee decided unanimously to retain Fran Casullo to conduct a study of the current county attorney system and possible ways to improve it. The full Legislature will vote on the proposal Feb. 28.

Casullo would be paid $90 an hour at a cost not to exceed $5,000 under the proposal.

Budget and Finance Committee Chairman John Troy (D-1st Ward) said that the idea for a professional, non-politicized law department had originated in a Cortland Standard editorial last year, and he had endorsed the possibility at the end of the year.

“That’s a position where politics shouldn’t be involved,” Troy said Tuesday afternoon. “If we can save the taxpayers money along the way and get more efficiency, those are definitely pluses.”
Budget and Finance member Tom Williams (R-Homer) said he did some research and approached Casullo about the idea, and the latter was enthusiastic.

Casullo is a member of the law firm Pomeroy, Armstrong & Casullo and the town justice for Cortlandville, where Williams is employed as code enforcement officer. Williams said Casullo also served as the assistant county attorney in the past and is acquainted with the office’s structure and duties.

The goal was to find someone outside of county government, and Williams said he doesn’t “see him (Casullo) as being possibly interested in the job, if it was created.”

The county attorney is appointed by each incoming Legislature at the start of its two-year term, usually at the organizational meeting at the beginning of January. The appointment has become a political football, some legislators say. Current County Attorney Mark Suben said that an investigation into a possible restructuring of the department is warranted.

“Given what I know about how this position has been filled and how the assistant positions have been filled — an unbelievably political process — I think it would be very prudent for the Legislature to look into this to have some continuity,” Suben said Tuesday morning.