Corporation Counsels: A curious tale

Plainfield, like all municipalities, has a Corporation Counsel, as required by the city's charter.

The Corporation Counsel is essentially the town's lawyer, looking over the town's business and activities, rendering legal advice, reviewing legislation, assessing risk and liability, and overseeing the attorneys hired to do specialized work.

So, this person is the attorney for the Corporation.

And, as we know, THE COUNCIL IS THE CORPORATION in New Jersey, the Mayor being the Corporation's executive officer under a charter like ours.

The Corporation Counsel's job is to represent the interests -- including the fiduciary interests -- of the Corporation, meaning the Council, right?

As Bill Clinton might say, that might be a 'fairy tale'.

The situation in Detroit, where the City Council is now at loggerheads with Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (pictured above), is informative.

Briefly, the Mayor is under fire for lying to prosecutors about whether he had a romantic relationship with his chief aide. It is not the relationship that is the problem, but the lying about it under oath. The Detroit Free Press uncovered the lies in the course of investigating why the City settled with some of its cops in a lawsuit.

Turns out the cops were fired for blowing the whistle on some of Mayor Kilpatrick's activities. Their suit was ended without a trial when Kilpatrick signed off on an $8.4 million settlement with the cops.

Which, of course, needed City Council approval (Councils have the power of the purse).

So why then did the Corporation Counsel for the City of Detroit urge the Council to sign off on the settlement without disclosing to them the perjurious situation of the Mayor and the evidence (text messages) on which it was based?

Why indeed?

Councils everywhere should ponder whether, when push comes to shove, their Corporation Counsel sees itself as representing THE CORPORATION'S interests or THE MAYOR'S.

And what to do should the need arise.

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• Detroit Free Press: "Council kept in dark on settlement details"

-- Dan Damon

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