Craig Fox, Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.(TNS)
WATERTOWN — City Council members woke up on Tuesday morning looking for a new city attorney and general counsel after the Syracuse law firm of Bond, Schoeneck, and King has decided to step away from those duties.
In an email on Monday night, City Manager Eric Wagenaar announced that Bond, Schoeneck, & King (BSK) “will withdraw” from its role as city attorney and general counsel.
Council members were not surprised with BSK’s decision to end that legal work for the city. The law firm didn’t give an exact reason for the decision. Council members wouldn’t talk publicly about why they believe it happened.
It’s been a couple of tumultuous months for City Attorney Kristen Smith, who attends council meetings and deals with council members on city issues.
“I wasn’t happy with her,” Councilman Cliff G. Olney III said.
It will be the third search for a city attorney during the past two years.
The law firm notified city officials of its decision two weeks ago and sent a letter on Monday formally announcing it. Wagenaar sent out Monday night’s email following an executive session after the subject came up for discussion.
Mayor Sarah V.C. Pierce said Tuesday city staff will start putting together a Request for Proposal seeking a new city attorney and general counsel. Plans call for distributing the RFP in about 30 days, allow for about 60 days to get interested law firms to submit their proposals and then appoint a new one at the end of the year or early in 2026.
BSK will stay on until a successor is found. The Syracuse law firm also plans to continue to handle litigation, contract negotiations and “specialty” representation in such areas as environmental issues, Pierce said. The firm is currently involved in 15 different cases and/or potential cases.
The new law firm would work as the city attorney and general counsel representing the City Council and attending council meetings, Pierce explained.
She and council members Benjamin P. Shoen and Olney hope to find a local law firm to be interested. Pierce thinks it might be easier to get a local law firm to do that kind of work since it would be “a smaller scope” than what BSK has been doing for the city.
“We’ll send out the RFP and see what will be the response,” Councilman Robert O. Kimball said.
Olney would like to see the city end the relationship with the law firm immediately, noting Smith’s decision that he was not entitled for the city to pay for his attorney during an ethics complaint against him that he released executive session information and questioned his involvement in the city’s $3.4 million purchase of the former Watertown Golf Club.
He also was dissatisfied that Smith heavily redacted legal bills involving the ethics complaint and a state police investigation into the golf club. In May, state police investigators decided not to pursue the probe.
Cutting ties with the law firm would be the wrong move, Pierce said. It would mean a new law firm would have start from scratch and get up to speed before it could start work on the legal cases.
In recent months, some council members criticized Smith for the way she handled her involvement in the initial stages of a state police investigation into the city’s $3.34 million purchase of the Watertown Golf Club in January 2023.
She also was criticized for recommending that former Mayor Jeffrey M. Smith go to the state attorney general’s office and Jefferson County District Attorney Kristyna S. Mills to report a bribery allegation against businessman P.J. Simao in an unrelated matter to the golf course deal. Neither allegation resulted in charges.
In September 2023, the law firm took over as the city attorney duties from H. Todd Bullard and his Rochester law firm of Harris Beach. The two law firms were vying for the job. On Sept. 18, 2023, council members voted, 3-2, to select the Syracuse law firm. Bullard was criticized for getting too involved in city politics.
Smith, who’s legal expertise is in labor and employment issues, co-chairs the firm’s municipalities practice.
The law firm was paid $455,770,35 for legal representation during the fiscal 2024-35 year, according to city officials. Besides Smith, other BSK attorneys working on city matters are: Tim McMahon, litigation; Colin Leonard, labor/employment law; and Bob Tyson, environmental/hydro.
Smith could not be reached for comment.t