Warren Council overrides mayoral veto, nixes law firm - The Macomb Daily

Warren City Council had the opportunity to override two mayoral vetoes at its regular meeting Tuesday night, but only garnered the super majority vote needed to shoot down one of them.

A resolution made by Council at a special meeting Oct. 30 terminating the contract between Miller Canfield law firm and the City of Warren was vetoed by Mayor James Fouts, but upheld by the Council when it voted 5-2 to override the veto. Councilpersons Ron Papandrea and Angela Rogensues voted against the override.

A request by Council made at that same special meeting to initiate litigation against Fouts to enforce an October settlement agreement that was meant to ensure all outside law firms employed by the City Council and the administration are paid was also vetoed by Fouts. That item did not receive the five votes needed for an override of the veto. Rogensues, Papandrea and Eddie Kabacinski all voted against the override.

The October agreement, negotiated by Dennis Cowan of Plunkett Cooney and Rob Huth of Kirk, Huth, Lange & Badalamenti was meant to expedite payment to all outside law firms and end the long-standing controversy over the payment of legal bills.

Jeffrey Schroder of Plunkett Cooney, who is the City Council’s special legal counsel, said all outside law firms for the city were paid, but that Plunkett Cooney was not. In his veto, Fouts said Plunkett Cooney invoices totaling $128,928 have already been paid and that a second batch of invoices in the amount of $81,964 are set to be paid, although a precise date for that transaction was not given. Schroder also said the invoices from Miller Canfield totaling $47,000 were added after the agreement was in place; Fouts contends they were on the table from the beginning and the action does not stipulate that only certain law firms are to be paid.

Fouts is scheduled to appear for a show cause hearing in Macomb County Circuit Court on Nov. 22 in front of Judge Julie Gatti. The mayor said he believes his veto of the Council’s action would quash the court case, but to date, the hearing is still scheduled.

“My veto is sustained so there should be no court date,” said Fouts. “The City Council is obsessed with court cases. They don’t want me to have any right to speak and they clearly do not want me to have a competent law firm.”

Councilman Garry Watts questioned the mayor’s ability to veto the Council’s resolution to authorize litigation in the matter of enforcement of the settlement agreement.

“It is my position that the mayor’s veto power does not extend to the council voting to litigate authority under the City Charter and under an agreement,” said Schroder.

Schroder compared the current situation to that of the mayor’s veto last year of council’s approval of a ballot proposal to set mayoral term limits to 12 years or three terms. That charter amendment did appear on the Nov. 2020 ballot and was passed by voters. However, Schroder did advise the Council to go through the process of overriding the current veto.

source: https://www.macombdaily.com/2021/11/11/warren-council-overrides-mayoral-veto-nixes-law-firm

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