BY PHIL CUSTODIO
Clarkston News Editor
A proposal to replace city attorney Thomas Ryan at Monday’s City Council meeting laid bare a political divide.
“What makes this job difficult is the fracture or the splintered groups that operate within this city,” said Mayor Steven Percival at the Sept. 24 meeting. “It’s the secret squirrel society – it’s these huge groups that have their own agenda that chirp chirp chirp chirp into council people’s ears and get them all riled up.”
Council member Scott Reynolds, who made the motion to terminate Ryan as city attorney, said he has seen the split in real time this past year.
“Half of the council votes one way, half of the council vote the other – that’s not a good position,” said Reynolds, who withdrew his motion after about an hour-and-a-half of discussion with council members, former city officials, and residents. “I don’t believe that you have to agree with every person and every topic. I’m okay with that. What I’m not okay with is what appears to be a confidence issue in the interpretation of the legal portion.”
Council member Sharron Catallo said she has also seen a change in the village.
“You might think I’m emotional about this, but I’m not I’m emotional about it,” Catallo said. “I’m emotional about the way we’re going about changing into something – people like to call it ‘the city’ now. We never called it ‘the city,’ it was the village. We were only the city for boundary purposes.”
Council member Rick Detkowski said he has received emails charging him and other council members with pulling a political stunt.
“Give me a flipping break,” Detkowski said. “This isn’t some grandstanding thing we’re trying to do here. And, I’m tired of the insinuations and I’m tired of the emails.”
Insinuations have been around “forever,” said Council member Joe Luginski, who previously served as mayor.
“If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen,” Luginski said. “We have put smaller things off at this council, because of not having the full information. Yet, we’re going to make a decision like this in one meeting, without talking to him (Ryan) and without having the performance review? It makes no sense – I will never ever support anything like that. It’s absolutely a travesty.”
Council member Jason Kneisc said people’s response was understandable given the proposal.
“It’s not the groups, it’s just you’re jumping immediately to a terminate discussion,” Kneisc said. “People are going to send emails like that when you jump immediately to terminate – what are you going to expect?”
Reynolds made the proposal because of bad legal advice from Ryan in recent cases including Susan Bisio’s FOIA lawsuit and the handling of documents regarding 148 N. Main Street, development of 42 W. Washington, and the primary election last August.
The city attorney needs the confidence of the city council, he said.
“I’m challenging the norm to think outside of the box to see if we can continue to move forward. There are some big challenges ahead of the city,” Reynolds said.
Council member Sue Wylie seconded the motion, saying the final straw for her was the advice Ryan gave regarding candidate petitions in the August primary.
“He gave us wrong information,” Wylie said. “I don’t see any evidence of a good track record – what I do question is the judgment and the advice he gives to council to prevent lawsuits. I think at times he’s overstepped his bounds.”
Percival said the legal advice regarding the primary election last August was “a debacle.”
“There was plenty of time to call a special council meeting in this matter and I spoke with both the city manager and attorney who claimed we didn’t need to act. Then last minute, the attorney wanted to act,” Percival said. “The city manager was advised to straw poll council to get their wishes. When only two or three responded and there was a negative response, the attorney went forward anyway. If there was no reason for council to be involved, and this was strictly the attorney’s decision based on him having prior direction to present at the hearing, then there would have been no reason to ask the city council for their input – what I don’t support is straw polling, getting insufficient responses, and acting anyway without the consent of council.”
Ryan also should not have been involved in an ongoing Freedom of Information Act case because he was a party to it, Percival said.
“Instead of him recusing himself and saying, I am not doing anything with this Bisio case, he continued to charge the city month after month after month after month, tens of thousands of dollars to review every piece of document that came into the city concerning that case,” the mayor said. “He stopped when I brought it to his attention.”
Kneisc pointed out the city has a city-manager-based government, so a termination proposal should come from the city manager.
“Jumping straight to terminate, there are several steps we’re missing in there,” he said.
City Manager Jonathan Smith; Rich Little, former interim city manager; and Carol Eberhardt, former city manager, all vouched for the city attorney.
“He’s a very respectful person, you will not find a person more respectful of other people,” Smith said. “He’s very knowledgeable on municipal law and extremely knowledgeable about Clarkston ordinances. Professionalism and knowledge of the job, I cannot give the guy anything but an A rating.”
Little found Ryan to be articulate, professional, responsive, and very qualified.
“I can understand if you’ve looked at a couple of these big, high profile things and say, well, gee, that doesn’t work out, we should try something different,” Little said. “But I think what you may be missing is, the day-to-day job is done every day by a professional that has some knowledge that we just could not possibly lose.”
Eberhardt said Ryan never raised his rates in 25 years, even though she asked about it.
“He said, ‘Carol, I don’t raise your rates because I know you guys don’t have a lot of money.’ He loves the city. And he loves the people that work here,” she said. “There is value in the time he’s been here. The bulk of the ordinances that we’re using right now, he helped construct. He knows them backwards and forwards.”
Resident Chet Pardee said Ryan was responsible for withholding 18 documents at the center of the FOIA lawsuit against the city.
“Of the 18 documents that are withheld, 13 were related to 148 North Main, and five related to Main and Waldon, and both of those groups of documents involved either Curt Catallo or Cara Catallo,” Pardee said. “I’m not really sure in that case, whether or not Tom was acting as the city’s attorney or whether he was acting as a family attorney.”
Main Street business owner James Schneider shared a similar sentiment.
“To me, he’s working for other people in the community, shielded by this place and getting paid by the city,” Schneider said.
Sharron Catallo, who is the mother of Curt and Cara, called on the mayor to curtail the insinuations regarding her family.
“Maligning two members of my family and myself – you have gone on record saying that not should happen,” Sharron said.
Percival agreed.
“I apologize to you and Curt and Cara,” he said.
Reynolds rescinded his motion on the condition that Ryan discuss setting up a special meeting.
“I’m happy to call Tom personally and have a discussion to see if he would come in and meet with us,” Reynolds said. “If he will not, I will put this motion back on the table.”
Percival objected to the conditions, but said he didn’t have a problem with an evaluation in closed session. Ryan would have to request it, though.