NIAGARA COUNTY
Ex-agency attorney denied funds
LOCKPORT — The former attorney for the Niagara County Sewer District again has lost his bid to shake loose more than $17,000 he asserted he was owed for past legal work.
Besides dismissing Robert S. Roberson’s monetary claim, State Supreme Court Justice Frank Caruso, in a ruling released Wednesday, also said that the Sewer District is merely another department of county government, not the quasi-independent entity town supervisors had believed it is.
The district has been governed for 40 years by a board of the six supervisors of the member towns.
The issue came to a head when Roberson, the district’s former attorney, was denied payment in 2006 for some vouchers he submitted for legal work he did when he represented the district. Roberson was replaced as the district’s lawyer in January 2006.
After his first lawsuit against the county was thrown out on a technicality, Roberson tried again earlier this year to win $17,751, plus interest, that the county auditor’s office had refused to pay him in 2006.
County Legislature Vice Chairman Clyde L. Burmaster, R-Ransomville, who led the effort to bring the district under more direct county control, said Caruso’s ruling merely upheld state law regarding the district.
Burmaster said: “The contracts they enter into have to be approved by the county. They have to follow county purchasing [policies], which they’ve resisted for years. . . . Their employees will be under [County Manager] Greg Lewis and [County Human Resources Director] Peter Lopes.”
Roberson said he hadn’t seen the ruling and couldn’t comment on it.
Roberson’s suit was filed against the county and the Sewer District. Caruso ruled that the Sewer District cannot be sued on its own, since it’s just a county administrative unit.
He also ruled that County Attorney Claude A. Joerg, not the supervisors, has the right to choose the district’s attorney.
Joerg called Caruso’s ruling “well-written, well-thought-out and based on sound legal principles.”
However, Caruso’s ruling allows Roberson the option to try to sue the county again, but not the Sewer District.
