CANTON – St. Lawrence County Legislators will likely vote tonight on whether or not to call on the state to investigate the district attorney.

The county is holding a special board meeting at 5:15 p.m. prior to the operations committee meeting. Legislator Joseph Lightfoot, who penned the no-confidence resolution, said he expects the board will vote on it tonight.

The services committee, which is made up of the full board, approved a resolution in an 11-3 vote last week that would ask the governor to initiate an investigation for the potential removal of SLC District Attorney Mary Rain. However the bill still needs approval from the County Board of Legislators to make the committee’s vote official.

Last week’s vote followed a lengthy debate during which legislator David Forsythe and Chairman John Burke spoke in opposition of the resolution. Though both supported an investigation, they did not support much of the language included in the resolution.

“St. Lawrence County Board of Legislators respectfully requests that the Governor of the State of New York, authorize and order an investigation to determine if the current district attorney possesses the demeanor, the ethical fitness and requisite judgmental ability and the integrity needed to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of a duly elected district attorney, and to make a determination of whether or not there are reasonable grounds to believe that crimes may have been committed by the district attorney," the resolution says.

The strongly worded resolution put forward by legislator Joseph Lightfoot revisited mishaps that have been alleged since Rain was elected to office in 2014.

“Since taking office her tenure has been marked by complaints of sexual harassment within the office environment, the loss of grant funded positions because of lack of oversight and attention to detail by the District Attorney, the firing and forced resignation of assistant district attorneys, one of which has resulted in a suite being brought against the county; the resignations of several other ADAs which have left the current office minimally staffed with inexperienced attorneys,” the resolution says. “This recently resulted in allowing a law school graduate, not yet admitted to practice without 'immediate' supervision, to prosecute a felony grade case in St. Lawrence County Court, which was subsequently dismissed after which Me. Rain was publicly accused of fraud by the sitting county court judge.”

The resolution is co-sponsored by members of the county board of legislators.

See more on the services committee decision here.