10/30/2013
To
the Editor,
I
would like to respond to the quote in the October 29th
Cortland Standard attributed to Ron Walsh at a forum for the Cortland
City Judge race. When asked at the forum why he had been
terminated as city attorney, his response was that he thought it was
because of “a disagreement on interpretation of the law”.
Mr.
Walsh was not my choice for City Counsel. The Democratic Chairman,
despite my concerns, advised me that Mr. Walsh would be a good
candidate due to his strong relationship with the party.
Mr.
Walsh’s termination was not based on a legal matter but instead on
his performance. The termination was supported by a bi-partisan
majority of the City Council. In fact, a Democratic alderman said
Mr. Walsh had done “too little for too long”.
The
City suffered with a backlog of delayed legal maters and unreturned
phone calls caused by his poor attendance at City Hall. Department
Heads in need of timely legal advice became frustrated. In addition,
he was consistently unprepared for Council meetings. In fact, during
a preliminary hearing with a Supreme Court Justice on the Rental
Permit Lawsuit, Mr. Walsh was scolded that he needed to be better
prepared in court.
Either
because of his unavailability or inability, the City was over-budget
for the Law Department by $80,000 for outside legal fees. After he
was terminated, he deleted all legal documentation in the City
computer and took multiple legal files from City Hall. It took the
involvement of the Chief of Police to have the files returned.
Mr.
Walsh’s inaccurate statement about his termination prompted me to
write this letter. Because he is running for such an important
office, it is important for the citizens to learn the truth.
Susan Feiszli
Former
Mayor of Cortland
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