BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week

OGDENSBURG -- Around 50 Ogdensburg residents called for the resignation of Mayor Jeffrey M. Skelly Deputy Mayor John Rishe and councilors Bill Dillabough and Steve Fisher prior to the city council meeting Monday.

The calls followed an arbitration decision between the police union and the city that stated the city council and mayor violated the charter and labor contract when they instructed former City Manager Sarah Purdy to lay off four police officers.

Cindi Layng, who has relatives on and retired from the police force, was among those calling for resignations.

She said that while there have been other protests held, this one is different because the arbitrator's opinion is clear that the majority council violated the charter. The section of the charter the councilors and mayor have alleged to have violated calls for the immediate forfeiture of the seat.

“They need to resign,” she said.

Layng noted that Arbitrator James Gross has more than six decades of experience and that his opinion is considered binding on the matter.

Opinions from others in the crowd were similar though some also called on the city to fill a firefighter position that became vacant following a termination last week.

During the meeting the cries for resignation continued by several members of the public including Ogdensburg City Police Benevolent Association President Justin Polniak.

“As you already know, the Union filed a grievance in May of 2020, which claimed a violation of the City Charter and collective bargaining agreement when it passed a resolution directing the city manager to lay off four police officers. The matter went to arbitration, where an arbitrator determined that the City had in fact violated both the charter and the contract when it passed the resolution. According to the charter, a violation of the provisions in question shall result in forfeiture of office. We know that there were four councilors that voted in favor and three that voted against passing the resolution. The four that voted in favor are required to forfeit their offices according to the law of city. We are aware that the city’s defense is that the resolution was passed as a body and not as individuals. I don’t find this argument compelling and nor does my union rep Jose Manjarrez, who told me that the City’s position is as meritorious as the City’s defense to the original grievance. Specifically that the resolution had no legal significance. Jose said that is nothing short of verbal gymnastics and ballyhoo. In short it is without merit. For these reasons, I am making a respectful demand that Councilors Skelly; Rishe; Dillabough; and Fisher forfeit their office immediately,” he said.

The meeting opened with a call from Mayor Michael Skelly asking his fellow councilors to come together. He said he knew there would be attempts by councilors to belittle other councilors, but said doing so only hurts the city.

Councilor Michael Powers also called for resignations, but none of elected officials chose to do so.

“I think the violators of the charter should remove themselves from their seats,” he said. Powers said he and members of the public warned the majority at the time that the action was a violation of the charter.

Deputy Mayor John Rishe defended his position noting that the arbitrator was not a lawyer or a judge and the city followed the opinion of an attorney prior to passing the resolution that was alleged to be a violation of the charter.

“I don’t know how people think they are judge and jury and get to decide these things,” he said.

Rishe said that from his perspective there was no charter violation.

“He’s not a lawyer,” he said. “I don’t think he has a law degree.”

He said the city had two opinions from attorneys that the action was not a violation.

“It’s really a question of interpretation. I do disagree and we’ll take it from there,” he said.

It’s likely that the issue will be settled in court.

Layng and others said a group of citizens is crowd funding money to hire an attorney to file an Article 78 action against the city.

She said there are attorneys ready and willing to take the case that believe it has merit.

Others who spoke at the meeting included Michael Tooley who questioned if the city should even be holding the meeting since three councilors and the mayor should have forfeited their seats.

No resolution calling for resignations was put forward by the minority councilors though one was sent to the city manager but rejected following advice from attorneys.