Eric Lacy

Lansing State Journal

LANSING -- No matter what City Council members say or how they interpret the City Charter, Mayor Virg Bernero vows to keep F. Joseph Abood employed until further notice. The matter could lead to yet another dispute over the office Abood serves.

Bernero told the Lansing State Journal this week that Abood's appointment as interim city attorney would not expire at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, despite council members' March 28 vote that set a two-month time limit for the appointment.

"He's the city attorney; nothing has changed," Bernero said Wednesday.

At-Large Council Member Carol Wood begs to differ and suggested on Friday that it could be time to hire outside legal counsel so Bernero doesn't abuse his administrative power. Outside legal counsel, likely paid by money already set aside in the City Attorney Office's budget for conflict of interest matters, might be necessary since Abood is still employed, Wood said.

Abood was appointed interim city attorney by Bernero on Feb. 19, two weeks before former City Attorney Janene McIntyre left her job with a $160,000 payout. Bernero and McIntyre have declined to explain why she received the payout.

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Wood argues that council's confirmation of the Abood appointment -- with the two-month limit -- is within the framework of the City Charter. If Bernero thinks otherwise, then it's too late to act because the charter gave him three working days to veto the time-limited appointment after City Council passed it on March 28, Wood said.

"He had his opportunity," Wood said Friday. "It didn't happen."

Bernero said the City Charter, as the city's "constitution," allows Abood to stay employed as interim city attorney indefinitely. Bernero added that he's not ready to say when Abood's interim title could be lifted or if he has another person in mind to fill the city attorney role permanently.

"When you look at interims, sometimes they have been interims for a very short time," Bernero said. "And other times they have been for a year."

The charter states "an appointment to fill a vacancy shall be made by the mayor to fill a vacant mayoral appointed member position."

Bernero wrote in a May 23 letter to council members that they don't have the legal authority to establish a time limit and described it as "a violation of the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of city government."

Wood said Friday she and Council President Judi Brown Clarke are concerned that a troubling precedent could be set because of Bernero's disregard of council's resolution with the two-month limit. Wood said Clarke has asked the City Attorney's Office to look into the matter.

The issue also is unsettling, Wood said, because neither Abood nor anyone in the City Attorney's Office raised concerns about the two-month limit before the council voted unanimously in favor of it.

"Does this mean now that every resolution or ordinance that's written, that's approved by this council by an 8-0 vote can be two months, three months down the line (and) be subject to the mayor saying 'Guess what, I'm not going to follow this anymore.'" Wood questioned. "You can't do those things off the fly."

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City Clerk Chris Swope said Friday the charter gives council members the ability to confirm mayoral appointments. But Swope said the charter seems to limit their actions to confirmations of those appointments. Swope added that council members, as of Friday, had not asked him to study their options within the charter's framework.

"It's not a specific area that I've really looked at," Swope said.

Council's next meeting, according to its schedule posted online, is 7 p.m. June 13 at City Hall. The council's Committee of the Whole meets at 5:30 p.m. that day.

Abood was deputy city attorney before taking on the interim role. Bernero bumped his annual salary from $89,836.50 as deputy to $119,999.88 as interim. After McIntyre left on March 4, Bernero authorized the $30,000 raise for Abood with retroactive pay that dated back to Jan. 8.

McIntyre's hire date, according to the records, was March 19, 2013. McIntyre's separation agreement gave her lump sum payments of $127,567.10 and $33,095.69. The latter was called a "paid time off buyout" of 400.01 vacation hours, 60.6 sick time hours and 16 personal hours.

Documents related to McIntyre's payout and her working relationship with Bernero still have not been made public after repeated Freedom of Information Act requests and appeals made by the LSJ. Delays for several FOIA requests sent to the City Attorney's Office exceed the time limits allowed under Michigan law.

Eric Lacy is a reporter for the Lansing State Journal. Contact him at 517-377-1206 or elacy@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @EricLacy.