I just think you'll see that it feels like it's going quite easier.

Sorry.

You're all good.

Um, okay.

No, that's what we love.

It is what it is.

Okay.

We'll give people one more minutes.

One more minute.

Okay.

No, we'll just go.

So uh one on five more.

Thank you.

We were hoping that folks would see that key me so you can get together and do the list that he's constantly flowing.

I'm trying not to take it personally, but I think so that he doesn't make myself.

Can I share your book?

Of course, yeah.

Julie had given us this to the easier way to look at something for the bug ink.

It has everything that's in here, but not in that meeting.

All right.

Good afternoon.

Um I know that there are more colleagues that ran to get refreshments, our fourth hearing of the day.

Um we're trying not to take it personally here in the law department.

Um but join joining me today, as of now, Counselor Nave President Paniagua, and we have the Department of Law.

We've got Suketzov and Joe Berry.

Thank you.

Thanks for having us.

Uh thank you very much.

And what I've been having everyone lead with is uh, you know, what what does your department do?

How does it fit into the structure of the corporation?

What do you do?

What are some of the the wins that you can share with us and other you know potential challenges for for the for the past budget year?

Sure, thank you for the opportunity to do that.

So our office represents the entire city.

We are legal counsel for the entire city, all of your boards.

Um primarily obligation as corporation counsel is to defend the city in actions commenced against us.

So to date since the beginning of the fiscal year, we have received 203 notices of claim, and that is the first step to starting a lawsuit against the city.

So that's a pretty significant volume of claims that come in.

In addition to that, we also um address affirmative claims where if someone has damaged our property, so think I I hate to be on the record saying this, but think national grid is doing some kind of digging and injured, you know, harms one of our pipes.

We go up, we pursue that and get um those claims addressed so that we can repair our pipe and we're not out any money.

Um I think that the next biggest thing that has the greatest public um impact is the work that our office does in conjunction with codes and SPD to address problem properties.

It can be a nuisance property, it can be a property that has ongoing trash issues, like they just their whole front yard is full of trash.

It can be um the more serious claims that we have taken um great lengths at trying to pursue if you are selling illegal cannabis, if you are selling tobacco to minors, if you are engaged in the sale of illegal drugs, we have created a mechanism where we work cross-departmentally to try to address those properties early on.

We have a process by which we have now developed to pursue those.

It takes a lot of man hours, it takes a lot of coordination amongst departments.

I could not be successful without codes, if I'm being completely honest, and SPD's help.

Um, but we have really got it down, if I do say so myself.

It took us a while, we had to figure out what the courts would allow us to do and what they wouldn't allow us to do, but we now have a good system where we can identify properties earlier, we can go after them when they have demonstrated a significant um ongoing issue with what we deem to be um illegal or improper practices at a site.

Um beyond that, we pursue um bad landlords we or bad property owners.

So the name Kletzke may mean something to you.

He owns tons, dozens of properties in the city, they are all being run into the ground, he puts no capital into them, people live there, the conditions are not good.

We've commenced a lawsuit against him and all of his properties, and we are on the cusp of um getting an order from the court.

He did file for bankruptcy, that's gonna be dismissed, and then we will get a decision out of the court.

I truly believe in favor of the city with significant fines.

Um in addition to that, we have collected just shy of $500,000 to date on judgments.

We have a paralegal in my office who pursues judgments that the city has obtained either through the BAA or through my office, and we have someone who pursues collection of those through various mechanisms.

So we're a busy little group.

Um, and but that's Joe.

I don't know if you have anything to add, but that's what we do in terms of the litigation.

I want I didn't I want to say one more thing before I turn it over to Joe.

In addition to that, as you know, we represent this body.

So Joe drafts with the assistance of one of the attorneys in my office, hundreds of pieces of legislation every year.

Every single time you take any action that requires an ordinance, Joe is in charge of drafting and preparing that for you.

So there's a lot of work that goes into what we all do every day to service the city.

But um now.

Oh, thank you.

Um and I want to acknowledge uh Catherine Carnrich and Meg Ryan play an important part in that team effort.

Um and in addition, I want to point out that our office provides a lot of support to the joint schools construction board.

Uh phase three is really gearing up with hired architects to design uh several schools, including Nottingham High School.

Uh we'll be on the issue.

Oh, yes.

You have me do my roof roof bar.

We have a bulldog at the table.

Yeah, but make an iron.

So we're very excited about that program, and uh it'll unfold this year, and you'll uh see a lot more in that regard, including a bond refinancing, which will be coming up in a couple of meetings.

It will save the city and the school district a lot of uh interest cost.

Can I ask a question?

I wasn't here and you probably answered it.

You have 31.

You went from 34 to 31 votes.

You have to count number two.

We have um I I have it broken down on my chart by 34 attorneys.

So um I think that we are down a few attorneys.

There are some vacancies.

I think as part of the budgeting process, vacancies were removed in order to create a more balanced budget.

Um so that's really I think where those changes come from.

We are we are definitely down to attorneys, and then the secretary to the Clumin Council, to the corporation council.

I have a secretary, but there was another that there was another position that was another secretary.

Uh that's what I was gonna.

I see I see her here.

Yeah, and you're missing one assistant corporation counsel.

Two.

We now have two vacancies.

But it may the second one may have occurred to the printing of the budget.

How much time does your office do when you're going to court?

You have to be in the courthouse and you have to deal with cases.

How much time and money does it cost?

Your department.

I mean well, that's a very difficult question for me to answer because the cases that we handle range from a trip and fall or a minor traffic accident to we just won two cases in federal court where the plaintiff who was suing us, one was convicted of rape and was challenging some of the process, and that was a huge case.

Years really, but it ramps up as it gets closer to trial.

That trial was held in Albany, and they spent between a week and 10 days in Albany, you know, handling.

Like we're needed that can help you.

We have outside counsel that we rely on that and they charge by the hour, and we have an outside council budget.

But my in-house attorneys are salaried and they work whatever hours are required to address the litigation depending on the size of it.

And depending on the size, will depend on how we staff it.

Sometimes it's just one attorney, sometimes it's two, sometimes it's three.

Um we have some pretty significant federal trials coming up.

Um of them is Broadwater.

I don't know if this group is familiar with that.

He was a gentleman who was convicted of rape 25 years ago up on the Hill, and he has since been freed based on DNA evidence, and he is suing.

No, his name is Broadwater.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Did you broad with an R.

Okay.

Um we are handling that in-house, and it takes up a significant amount of time as it gets closer to trial.

There are motions, there are um pleadings, there are depositions, there's evidence that has to be reviewed and trial prep that has to take place.

So I I don't mean to avoid the question, it's just very no, I understand.

Yeah, yeah.

So I think related uh cousin Paniago and I were talking about the professional service line, which is your outside counsel and less budget season, we reduced that number, and it turns out that you needed it.

Um where and when, how do you determine when you go outside of our staff attorneys to outside counsel?

What do we use them for you?

Can you you know cast a little light on that whole situation?

Yeah, so we try very hard to keep as much in-house as we possibly can because it is more cost-effective if we can handle it in-house.

However, we don't have that much bench when it comes to significant trial work like that.

So what we have been fortunate to be able to do sometimes is partner with our outside counsel and assign one of our younger attorneys to work the case as well.

So they're getting mentored by a firm on this particular type of trial prep.

And so it's a wonderful learning opportunity for them so they get more experience.

We our attorneys who already have the experience are tied up doing other cases, and so that's when we will go to outside counsel, and we have been um we have often asked them, okay, we want you to handle this, but we want you to use attorney A as one of your associates, and then that attorney goes and lives at that firm for the duration of that trial prep, so that they can learn and they have the opportunity, and it is a way for us to leverage that investment in outside counsel.

So our outside counsel fees fluctuate.

Um but the fewer attorneys I have in my office, the more I have to rely on outside counsel.

So it's that kind of yes.

You are voting one person, you're voting one person, or you are you floating more than one?

We it depends on the cases that we have that come up.

So most recently it was one.

We sent an attorney to work with an one of our outside counsels in between the departments, like Leah just said that you guys are hearing.

Uh John Black.

Oh, he's part-time.

He's part-time in my office and part-time.

He's the only one.

Yeah.

That's the only one you said.

Yes.

But for sure, we say I'm going to direct it there is there.

What's the difference between one?

Julie, if you know the one made it quite easy.

Um, speaking of services, I think professional services are outside council.

Show up.

Yeah.

Ah, gotcha.

And then the outside counsel is outside.

I have to look at this, but how many stir up in um Sir?

Four.

I think four.

Okay, so how's it only?

Wrong one.

No.

So even if if we I'm sorry, Corey.

I'll go for it.

Volume.

Okay.

I was gonna say, um, so you're down five total four up top and one.

Yeah.

Oh no, up you up one here.

So just four.

Three.

I think if you're comparing 2526 to 2627, we are down three at the top.

Yeah.

And I think we're up one at the bottom.

Okay, so you're down uh three total.

Yes.

No, you're down four at the top.

You just lost somebody you said.

Oh, I'm sorry, I was looking at the numbers, yes.

Okay.

So if the four just so just throw it out, and I'm not not promising anything, I don't know, nothing.

Um, but if the four was well, the funding is is available.

You just have to find someone, or you don't have the funding.

Who how many you had the cut for funding?

I have one.

I have one and a half that I have funding in this budget year for, but in this new budget, I would have one that's been funded into 2627.

Okay, so you would need three funded through this budget for additional.

Okay.

Okay.

Um can I ask how many of your staff work from home?

How many of my staff work from home?

Uh I have one person um who works part-time home because of some health concerns, and I have one who works uh at home full-time because of health issues in a family member.

Gotcha.

Okay, I didn't know.

I knew that some of your staff didn't know what the cadence was or or whatnot.

Okay.

Um about Friday.

Friday?

Yes, that's Friday.

Um, we had a case in appeals court regarding the taxome status for Shine.

And we did not send an attorney.

Can you give any insight into that?

Certainly.

Um, it is getting less and less frequent that attorneys argue at the appellate division level.

Courts take submissions all the time.

And because we have one person less than we did.

Um, I made the decision not to send someone new to go and argue.

And we notified the court that we were doing it on submission, and they had no objection to that.

All of our papers are fully briefed.

We are comfortable with them, and we have started making decisions in my office about oral argument at the appellate division where we will go if we feel there is a nuanced issue that really doesn't come across well in the papers and you feel like you need to explain it, or if it's a unique issue that has never been tried before, if there's something unique about it, we will make the investment and send somebody to travel to Rochester.

Otherwise, we are taking this um position that we'll submit on our papers.

So you don't think it put it uh put us at a disadvantage?

I don't have I don't question going back to earlier when you talked about problem properties.

Um what are we available to do, or what is our position on squatters?

It's a huge problem.

It is a huge problem because the law favors squatters over landlords.

I mean, that is the God's honest truth.

It is a very challenging process.

I thought that they had I thought they repealed it and said that squatters didn't have the rights that they had.

I think courts still lean towards giving them the opportunity which causes delays, which creates backlog.

I I mean I can do I can certainly just a memo.

I'm talking about somebody who just never was supposed to be the property.

Correct.

Okay.

It's still right.

I just dealt with this issue on a personal level, not for me, but someone in my family.

These individuals had moved into a house, they had lived there for years without paying rent, never had a lease.

Eviction proceedings were commenced.

They got an attorney, and they argued, oh, service wasn't correct.

Okay, so the judge threw it out.

They commenced it again.

I mean, I it went on for six months until finally um all of the squatters were removed.

But it was not an easy process, and I have no good answers for you.

All right, um, Syracuse, y'all hear that online?

I mean, exactly our hands are tied.

This is true.

When I don't know, I don't know, but that's a tough one.

Yeah, and then I mean it's it's terrible because that's why we have these house fires.

This property's been vacant for 13 years and now all of a sudden it's caught fire because you got squatters living in it, and they are utilizing whatever way to keep warm or cook, you know, that they can, and then someone now has lost the entire property, right?

So it's certainly something you could take up with our state legislators.

All right, you hear that?

Uh just read.

I ain't gonna call y'all by name, but we can't call our name.

Yes, we can set the center table.

Yeah, we're here.

All right, so before we adjourn, I'd just like to thank you both.

Um I know that I call both of you regularly, and if you're getting phone calls from me, I'm assuming you get phone calls from the other ten of us.

And um we're grateful for the help that you provide.

And so with that, yeah.