After city councilors expressed concern a new ordinance would reduce their powers, the mayor agreed to share the authority to appoint outside legal counsel with the body.
Councilor Colin F. LePage and Council Vice President Timothy J. Jordan requested the ability be explicitly granted at a subcommittee meeting last week, while councilor Melissa J. Lewandowski said the change was unnecessary because the ordinance already grants the council sufficient rights, which she also raised earlier this month, as WHAV reported. City Solicitor Lisa L. Mead, who drafted the ordinance and Mayor Melinda E. Barrett made similar points.
Jordan said, “In my six plus years on the council, I was always led to believe that it was the mayor [who] had all of that authority and the rule we’re looking to change, makes it read like the council actually had the authority to get outside council. At least on a couple occasions when I was on the council, myself and others wished to get an outside opinion and we were told we could not.”
Councilor Shaun P. Toohey noting a precaution against potential mayoral overreach, reassured the mayor, “I don’t think it’s about you.”
Barrett responded, “I know. It’s post traumatic stress or something.” Everyone laughed. Councilors pointed to an often-poor relationship with former Mayor James J. Fiorentini at a recent City Council meeting when the ordinance came up.
Though she thanked the mayor for the “concession,” Lewandowski maintained to subcommittee members it was unnecessary, pointing both to state law and state standards for law practice requiring city solicitors to represent all public employees, not just the mayor. Solicitors must ask for outside counsel to step in if they encounter conflicts of interest, she added.
Mead said she did not think the current language would make executive and legislative powers become “off-kilter.” She said, “It just brings the mayor into the mix, which is my understanding of what the practice has been, so that’s why it was drafted the way it was.”
After the mayor struggled to find an individual to fill the city solicitor role, the new ordinance removes the residency requirement and allows the city to hire a firm for a job that has, some say, has grown too complex for one person.
Mead and her law firm succeed William D. Cox Jr.—the city’s longest serving solicitor, who retired from the law department at the end of 2023.
Cox’s service to Haverhill dates back 40 years when he served as personnel director between 1984 and1988. He was first appointed as an assistant city solicitor by former Mayor James A. Rurak in 1994. At the time, Cox worked alongside City Solicitor Ashod N. Amirian and fellow assistants William S. Faraci and Carolyn Morton.
Cox became Haverhill’s full-time city solicitor at the start of 2004. Rurak recently told WHAV, Cox’s promotion by then-Mayor James J. Fiorentini was a good fit.
“All of the assistants were qualified to be the solicitor,” Rurak said. “Bill was especially important to Mayor Fiorentini because of his long background of service to the city, not only as a lawyer, but as a director of human resources. Plus, he has elements of gracious humanity and balance that kept his focus on the importance of the people he served.”
Cox eventually became the only member of the law department following Faraci’s retirement in 2009. When Cox reduced his hours in 2022, Thomas C. Fallon was appointed as the first assistant in more than a decade.