Yorktown GOP Councilmen Demand Town Attorney Be Replaced
Yorktown councilmen Tom Diana and Ed Lachterman are planning to call for the hiring of new legal representation for the town following a recent ruling of an ethical complaint they made in February 2018.
Diana and Lachterman held a press conference October 7 outside Yorktown Town Hall to publicize an August 14, 2019 decision from the New York State Attorney Grievance Committee that admonished attorney Marc Oxman for dual legal representation.
Oxman’s law firm was awarded a contract for more than $211,000 in January 2018 by the town board in a 3-2 vote to provide legal services. Oxman has not actually served as the town attorney. Instead, one of his attorneys, Richard Abbate, has served in that capacity.
Prior to that appointment, Oxman sued the town board in October 2017 on behalf of resident tax watchdog Ed Ciffone after the board voted to pay $2,500 to Marvin Ray Raskin to represent former Supervisor Michael Grace relating to a grievance that had been filed against him by his political nemesis Susan Siegel, a former supervisor and councilwoman.
At the same time Oxman was representing Ciffone pro bono, Diana and Lachterman maintained Oxman was negotiating with Supervisor-elect Ilan Gilbert to replace Michael McDermott as town attorney since the Democrats now held a 3-2 majority on the board.
“This is called a quid-pro-quo,” Diana charged. “Not only was there a complete lack of transparency regarding the negotiations between Supervisor Gilbert and Mr. Oxman but the supervisor, who has been an attorney for over 35 years and a former town judge, should have known that any negotiations with the Oxman Group while they were suing the town was completely improper.”
“Supervisor Gilbert led the charge to approve the hiring of the Oxman Group to take over the town’s entire legal services,” said Lachterman. “It has now been confirmed that due to Mr. Oxman’s conduct, suing the town, that hiring process was in fact ethically compromised despite my repeated objections.”
Oxman, a former town justice in Yorktown, stressed he had never had a complaint filed against him previously in his 50-year legal career and contended the decision from the Grievance Committee was supposed to be private and confidential.
He accused Lachterman and Diana, who are both seeking new four-year terms on November 5, of dirty politics.
“I believe this is out of the Donald Trump playbook,” Oxman remarked. “The timing of this is not coincidental. If someone wants to accuse me of being partisan, guilty! I’m a Democrat. So, what’s the story here, that Marc Oxman was admonished by the Grievance Committee? Hell no, The story is that the Yorktown Republican Party repeatedly goes after well respected Democrats in an endeavor to promote their own political self-interest. It’s vile and repugnant practice, and it must be called out.”
During the press conference, Oxman confronted Diana and Lachterman and asked if they had any problems with the representation from his firm. Lachterman said he had some issues with some of the advice given by Abbate, while Diana said he was bothered by the lawsuit Oxman filed against the board on behalf of Ciffone.
“The Oxman law firm sued us. I don’t appreciate being sued by a firm that took over representation of me,” Diana said.
Abbate, who was also on hand for the press conference, said neither Diana nor Lachterman have ever expressed any concerns to him.
Oxman explained how his dual representation occurred. “Prior to my appointment as Yorktown town attorney in January of 2018, I properly transferred the case to another attorney. The case then lied dormant for months, for the reason that the relief sought, an injunction to prevent payment was after the fact. The improper payment of Grace’s attorney fees had already been made. The case effectively being over, I omitted to assign the representation of the town board to outside counsel. It slipped my mind…oops.”
Diana and Lachterman also accused Gilbert and councilmembers Alice Roker and Vishnu Patel of “pushing forward” the vote of their strenuous objections, charging “the illicit quid-pro-quo was certain to hinder objective non-partisan legal representation on behalf of the town.”
Roker, who stood next to Patel throughout last week’s press conference, didn’t take kindly to Diana and Lachterman’s accusations and called them out on it.
“What is the quid-pro-quo?” Roker asked Lachterman. “When you continue to bring it up that concerns me.”
At Tuesday night’s (October 15) meeting, Diana and Lachterman are proposing two resolutions. The first will issue a new RFP for legal services for the town. The second seeks separate counsel for them, citing no confidence in Abbate or the Oxman Group.
They added they felt they needed to publicize the Grievance Committee’s ruling after an opinion from the town’s Ethics Board regarding a matter with Patel releasing information to the media was not made public for six months.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/