Putnam Legislators Expand Power to Fire Attorney

Change comes amid ethics complaint

A charter change giving Putnam County legislators the ability to fire the county attorney at will was approved on Monday (Oct. 1) but excludes the current attorney, who filed an ethics complaint against Legislator Toni Addonizio. 

Addonizio voted with five colleagues to remove a restriction that allowed six of the nine legislators to dismiss the county attorney, but only if their interests and the executive’s conflicted and the attorney refused to represent the Legislature. They can now fire the attorney for any reason.

Legislators who supported the change were accused of targeting Compton Spain because of his complaint. Spain will also be exempt from new language that will bar the county attorney from working outside county government. 

Under the charter, the county executive names the attorney and the Legislature approves the appointment. The charter allows the executive to fire the attorney with approval by two-thirds of the lawmakers.