The Village of Mineola Board of Trustees by a vote of 3-2 agreed to table or hold off on a payment to village attorney John Spellman's law firm for past legal work at a work session held on Wednesday, May 12.

Trustees Paul Cusato, Linda Fairgrieve and Lou Santosus voted to hold off on the payment while Mayor Jack M. Martins, along with Deputy Mayor Larry Werther, voted against tabling the payment calling the motion irresponsible.

Trustee Cusato suggested holding off on payments to Mr. Spellman's law firm Spellman, Walsh, Rice, Schure & Markus, the engineering firm of Dvirka & Bartilucci and the accounting firm of Rynkar, Vail & Barrett. The trustee had asked for the contracts those firms had with the village.

Trustee Cusato had received the retainer for Mr. Spellman's law firm as well as the contract for Rynkar, Vail & Barrett the morning of the May 12 work session. Since the engineering firm of Dvirka & Bartilucci is contracted on a project-by-project basis, some sample contracts were also provided to Trustee Cusato on the morning of May 12.

Since there was a bill for previous work done by Mr. Spellman's law firm before the board for approval, Mayor Martins suggested taking a recess during the work session for Trustee Cusato to review the two-page retainer from Spellman, Walsh, Rice, Schure and Markus.

Trustee Cusato said he would rather have time at home to review the contracts. Trustee Fairgrieve said she would also like time to review the contracts.

At the May 5 meeting of the board of trustees, Trustees Cusato, Fairgrieve and Santosus voted to hold off on payments to Mr. Spellman's law firm, Dvirka & Bartilucci and Rynkar, Vail & Barrett because Trustee Cusato wanted to see the contracts.

Mayor Martins said he wondered why the trustees didn't review the contracts between the May 5 meeting and the May 12 work session. The trustees said they didn't receive the contracts until May 12.

Mayor Martins then offered to take a recess to let the trustees review the retainer with Mr. Spellman's law firm. "This is a work session. If there is something we need to review and you have it, it's a page and a half, rather than having anybody put this thing off again, if you want five minutes to review it, I would be more than happy to adjourn the meeting for a few minutes for you to review it," Mayor Martins said to Trustee Cusato.

Trustees Cusato and Fairgrieve said they would like to review the retainer at home.

Mayor Martins believes there is an ulterior motive behind the trustees' decision to hold off on the payment. The mayor stated in a letter to the editor that appears in this week's edition of the Mineola American that the board's majority want to share some of the village's legal work.

Mayor Martins stated he would not compromise the quality of legal services he believes the village receives from Mr. Spellman and his law firm.

In the letter to the editor, the mayor states, "There will be no compromise in the high standards of professional service which the village receives, nor will I be threatened into making a 'deal' with the Legislative Majority lest they refuse to pay Mr. Spellman's law firm for its services."

At meetings on May 5 and May 12, Trustees Santosus, Fairgrieve and Cusato have not stated publicly any desire to bring in another firm to do some of the village's legal work. Trustee Fairgrieve has stated in public she would like to review the village's legal services with Mr. Spellman acting as a guide. The board did vote to appoint Mr. Spellman as the village attorney, however, held off the appointment of his firm.

Trustees Fairgrieve and Santosus aren't sure the village has a valid contract with Mr. Spellman's law firm. The retainer agreement signed by former Mayor John P. Colbert dated March 5, 2002 is for the firm of Spellman, Walsh, Rice, Schure & Markus. The firm the board was recently asked to appoint is Spellman, Rice, Schure, Gibbons, McDonough and Polizzi.

Mr. Spellman verified that he did receive a call from another attorney, Gerard Terry, who, according to Mr. Spellman, indicated that the board's majority of Trustees Cusato, Fairgrieve and Santosus wanted to share some of the village's legal work.

Mr. Terry confirmed that he did have conversations with Mr. Spellman. "Mr. Spellman and I have had a couple of discussions recently in the past week or so. None of those discussions involved my doing legal work for the village," he said on Monday.

Asked if those discussions involved any firm doing legal work in the village, Mr. Terry said, "Mr. Spellman is the village attorney. I have tremendous respect for Mr. Spellman. I would prefer the village attorney characterize what he wishes to characterize."

Mr. Terry said that he has spoken to Mr. Spellman four times in the last 10 days, but said commenting on the nature or the content of those conversations would not be appropriate. "I don't represent the village. I haven't asked for the opportunity to represent the village," he said.

Asked if Mr. Terry represents the board majority, he said "I don't have any representative capacity here, none at all. I have not been engaged. I have not been retained to represent anybody in the sense of lawyer-client. Absolutely not."

Mr. Spellman said despite the vote to hold off on approving payment for work, his firm of Spellman, Rice, Schure, Gibbons, McDonough and Polizzi would continue to provide work for the village, including prosecuting cases in the village justice court and negotiating a union contract with the Teamsters Local 808 union, which expired on June 1, 2003. "We're not shutting government down," he said.

The matter is expected to be discussed at the May 19 public meeting of the board of trustees. The work session begins at 6:30 p.m. with the public session scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in village hall.