The outside attorney's opinion that the Hartford City Council requested regarding removing Mayor Eddie A. Perez is in. Apparently the answer is that the issue is dead. According to the opinion, the time for action was before the trial began.
In the opinion below, Attorney Allan Taylor of the Day Pitney Law firm advised the Council that the issue is "moot". The opinion states that "The Council's failure to have adopted an Ordinance specifying the "procedure for determining said absence or disability" renders moot the question whether it could lawfully declare the Mayor absent or disabled as a result of his obligation to attend his criminal trial".
In plain English, any action by the Council would would have had to have been an Ordinance passed before the trial began. That's not to say the Council couldn't start a proceeding to remove the Mayor after a hearing before the Council, but in all likelihood the seventh Councilmembers vote required to accomplish that most likely would be elusive.
Once again it raises the issue as to whether Corporation Counsel John Rose is able to advise the Council properly or is he only the Mayor's attorney or is he purely just incompetent?
Taylor Opinion 5-17-10
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2 comments:
Wish it were mute instead. Then again, collectively the council is basically deaf, dumb and blind, so, whatever. How much did that legal opinion cost?
Founding Father and Atty. A. Taylor cites no case or statute for the proposition that it is too late for the Council to come up with an ordinance setting out a "procedure for determining said absence or disability." Let us accept arguendo that it is too late to invoke a yet-to-be-adopted ordinace declaring the full-time presence at a criminal trial an "absence." I say, pass an ordinance declaring pending criminal trial related to municipal service, conviction of a crime related to municipal service, and serving a prison term for any crime "absences." If the council won't invoke it during the trial, how about invoking in the event of a conviction? As far as I can tell Allan Taylor has expressed no opinion on whether we can get rid of a corrupt mayor who is actually in prison where he, the mayor, could be "in contact with the Chief Operating Officer by electronic or voice communication" as per charter.
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