BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week

CANTON -- The St. Lawrence County legislature's Services Committee voted in favor of the Department of Social Services contracting with the County Attorney's Office to handle DSS's support cases.

The committee, which is made up of the full board, took the action during their Monday, Nov. 16 meeting.

The committee voted 13-1-1 in favor of the resolution. Legislator John Burke, R-Norfolk, was the dissenting no vote. Legislator Margaret Haggard, D-Potsdam, abstained from voting and recused herself from the discussion. She is married to DSS General Counsel David Haggard.

DSS Commissioner Cindy Ackerman said her office handles 2,400 of the cases annually.

"This is a full-time job," she said.

Burke voiced several concerns prior to the vote, including that there could be a potential "conflict of interest," and questioned if the board even has the authority to take such an action.

"This is Cindy's jurisdiction, I don't think it's ours," Burke said.

County Attorney Steve Button said his office is already handling child support cases from outside the county that are sent to court here, and his office would be willing and able to accept the new caseload.

He said state Social Services Law allows Ackerman, with Board of Legislators approval, to fill "as many appointed positions for attorneys, experts and the like to perform legal functions, if necessary."

"Up until 1984, all DSS legal matters ... ran through the County Attorney's Office," Button said. "I do believe the board has the legal authority to reinvest the county attorney with the power to carry out the support function.

Both Button and the resolution noted that he also handled DSS legal matters from Jan. 28 to April 5 of this year, and their support cases from July 27 to Aug. 7.

"My office was already heavily active with Department of Social Services legal back at the beginning of the year," Button said.

He added that elsewhere in the state, county attorneys often handle all DSS legal matters.

"What I don't think this board is aware of is outside St. Lawrence County, it's quite normal to find the county attorney provides oversight of DSS legal operations," Button said. "It is not an abnormal scenario ... If we didn't have a DSS legal office over there, my office would be legally responsible to handle that function."

Legislator Joe Lightfoot, R-Ogdensburg, said the idea for contracting DSS with the County Attorney's Office came from DSS General Counsel David Haggard saying they need help keeping up with the caseload.

"He didn't have, nor did his attorney staff, have the time to adequately prepare for the court appearances that they are daily required to attend in the ... Family Court," Lightfoot said. "You have to be prepared."

He said the county attorney legal staff's role would be "look at the cases they had, interview the caseworkers, and prepare their cases in such a way they had a professional product in Family Court when they had to go there. Those were the reasons behind that. There's nothing nefarious about this."

The committee's resolution says both DSS and the County Attorney's Office are to review the arrangement, which would be throughout 2021, after six months to see if it's worth renewing. Lightfoot, who chairs the full Board of Legislators, said he wants Commissioner Ackerman to "weigh in on this at that six-month period of time, evaluating it separately and distinctly from Mr. Haggard and Mr. Button."

Burke was also concerned about what the county may have to pay to hire another DSS attorney versus contracting between county departments.

Ackerman said that could end up costing them.

"If we have approximately 2,400 cases a year, it probably takes about half an hour to an hour or more per case, that would be quite significant," she said. "I wanted to make sure in development of this contract, we were looking at the overall cost to make sure it won't exceed the cost of an attorney."

The resolution will have to pass the full board to become official. Their next meeting is Monday, Dec. 7.

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