Officials replace long-time village attorney with new law firm

The Mount Kisco Village Board hired a new firm to serve as village attorney for the second time in less than two years.

By MARTIN WILBUR

The Village of Mount Kisco has replaced its legal counsel after complaints by officials about an unresponsiveness to receiving information and answers to their questions.

Last week, the Village Board named Dorf Nelson & Zauderer LLP of Rye to act as the attorneys for the village and as village prosecutor less than two years after retaining McCarthy Fingar for those roles. The board replaced its longtime Attorney Whitney Singleton when it hired McCarthy Fingar.

“The timing of some of the research was just taking too long. That’s about it,” Mayor J. Michael Cindrich said after the conclusion of the Oct. 6 meeting where the board took unanimous action.

On several occasions, Trustee Thomas Luzio indicated that he sought answers to questions on matters from the attorneys to help make a decision on a particular matter, but they often went ignored.

The Village Board had retained Dorf Nelson & Zauderer to advise them after Mount Kisco was threatened with litigation in connection to the permit denial of Chabad of Bedford to hold a Rosh Hashanah service in Leonard Park. The matter was resolved just under two weeks before the holiday when the Recreation Commission issued the permit.

“They were certainly quick and decisive in their position on the Tashlich ceremony, and I appreciated that, and within days we had a comprehensive conversation with them,” Luzio said. “So I did appreciate that.”

While the proposed $15,000 monthly retainer for Dorf Nelson & Zauderer was higher than the previous counsel, Village Manager Edward Brancati said there are financial and logistical advantages. The retainer includes work with the Village Board, its role as village prosecutor, handling tax certioraris, and vehicle and traffic court.

McCarthy Fingar charged the village $8,500 a month for its base work, $3,500 a month for its prosecutor tasks for up to 20 hours and another $2,600 to handle the tax certiorari cases, Brancati said. Over the past six months, the prosecutor was also averaging about $2,600 extra a month because he went beyond the 20-hour limit, he said.

“I think this is an opportunity for the village to expand and enhance the legal services we receive and the opportunity to actually save money and probably have an improved product at the end,” Brancati said.

Cindrich said he hoped that the new prosecutor could also resolve some cases that have been lingering since at least 2017, when Cindrich left office before returning to the mayor’s seat nearly two years ago.

Trustee Karen Schleimer wanted some assurances that the new firm will have its attorney attend the meetings in person and who that might be.

Dorf Nelson & Zauderer associate Venesha White said Jonathan Nelson, partner and co-chair of the firm’s litigation department, will be the primary attorney for the board meetings as well as serving as village prosecutor. In the event he is unable to attend, White said she would stand in for Nelson as the board’s counsel and as prosecutor.

Regarding Schleimer’s question of in-person or virtual meeting attendance, that is an issue that will need to be resolved.

“If the request is that John is physically present at every meeting, that is something that we’re going to have to discuss and iron out because I don’t know as I stand here today,” White said. “I don’t know when the meetings are, I don’t know his schedule and I can’t say 100% he will be at every meeting, but his intention is to be here and be serving as the board attorney.”

The board unanimously passed the resolution hiring Dorf Nelson & Zauderer pending a final version of the retainer agreement.