Report Splits Council Members

Ogdensburg City Attorney Andrew W. Silver's report into the renovation and sale of the house at 819 Knox St. does not blame any one city staff member for the problems surrounding the property, but councilors have not ruled out action against City Manager Arthur J. Sciorra.

Mr. Sciorra said that he depended on his department heads to keep up with the matter while he focused on the day-to-day responsibilities of running the city, which allowed the matter to slip through the cracks.

Regardless, Deputy Mayor Michael D. Morley said Mr. Sciorra's time with the city could be growing short.

"I imagine we will see a resolution to terminate Art some time, but I can't guarantee when," said Mr. Morley.

WHO IS TO BLAME

Mr. Morley said that Mr. Sciorra is responsible for allowing a family to live at the Knox Street property for three years after the city foreclosed for back taxes without collecting rent, fees or taxes.

"I think that Art has failed to do his duty as city manager," he said. "Art failed to get a lease. It is not Phil Cosmo's job to get a lease. It is Art Sciorra's job as city manager."

Some councilors disagree that the responsibility for the situation belongs with Mr. Sciorra.

"Based on this report, I don't think they're justified," said Councilor Daniel E. Skamperle. "This report seems to indicate that the director of planning basically took action on his own."

Mr. Skamperle said the council needs to have an open discussion on the document before any action takes place.

"The resolution indicated that the mayor and deputy mayor don't just want to fire Art, they want to destroy Art. That is difficult for me," he said. "I am upset that the council as a body has not even discussed the report."

Mayor William D. Nelson, who wrote a preliminary resolution to terminate Mr. Sciorra, said the city now needs to focus on the status of the property. Mr. Sciorra had signed a purchase agreement in the spring allowing tenants of the Knox Street home buy the property, but council never approved the sale. A lease has since been drawn up with the tenants.

"The house is a rental, and I am assuming that the majority of the council will want to sell the house," he said. "We'll talk about the process for doing that."

He didn't say whether he would bring another resolution forward to terminate Mr. Sciorra.

"Right now we're dealing with one thing at a time," said Mr. Nelson. "As far as personnel matters, I am not going to talk about that."

The documents accompanying the report appear to support Mr. Sciorra's assertions that the matter simply slipped through the cracks and that he assumed it was being dealt with by his staff.

"Art has been accused of being solely responsible for this problem, and it is just not true. It is not true at all," said Councilor Nicholas J. Vaugh. "The department heads' jobs just weren't done. They didn't do what they were supposed to do. The city has been put in a very bad place."

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN

After the city took title to the property at the end of 2009, City Comptroller Philip A. Cosmo and interim city attorney A. Michael Gebo pursued evicting the tenants of the property, Barbara Seguin, Brett Burke and their three children. Mr. Sciorra has said he thought his department heads had the situation under control.

Though he was directed by Mr. Sciorra to work on drawing up a lease with the property's occupants, Mr. Gebo's statement said that he had no recollection of working with anyone but Mr. Woods on the property.

In March 2009, Mr. Gebo sent a letter notifying the tenants that the city took ownership of the property and directing them to call his office. Mr. Gebo said in a sworn affidavit that there was no response to his letter.

On April 14, 2009, Ogdensburg received $250,000 from the state Affordable Housing Corporation for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, a program established to help communities impacted by home abandonment and foreclosure by demolishing and renovating blighted houses.

Two days later, Mr. Woods received a call from the tenants asking for help staying in the home. Mr. Sciorra's response indicated he was surprised the house was still occupied.

"The only thing I can tell you is that I wasn't driving the emails in the first place. I was reacting when I received various emails," said Mr. Sciorra. "I was surprised when some things came back to me."

UNANSWERED

QUESTIONS

Over the next year, Mr. Sciorra and Mr. Cosmo frequently asked Mr. Woods and Mr. Gebo about how the tenants of the property should be dealt with, including questions about rent, taxes, and eviction.

Mr. Woods placed the family in the First Time Homebuyers Program, which provides assistance for low-income families interested in purchasing their first house. He advised the city not to remove the tenants because of liability issues and the costs associated with relocating a family.

"Justin was the one who was personally responsible for keeping them at that house," said Mr. Skamperle. "He used his job to promote his own social justice activist philosophy, and that is exactly what he said to us during his presentation to the council."

Many staff members seemed unfamiliar with the property as letters were passed between them. Mr. Woods, Mr. Cosmo, Mr. Gebo and Mr. Sciorra continually needed to be briefed as to the status of the property.

"Let's not lose sight of the fact that everyone of us are busy people," said Mr. Sciorra. "We're not standing there waiting at the phone to get a call. We're on to the next item."

NO FOLLOW-UP

In January 2010, an email conversation between Mr. Cosmo and Mr. Woods focused on whether the city needed to seek rent or back taxes for the property from the tenants. Mr. Sciorra made his opinions known.

"This has dragged on for nearly a year. This is wrong," Mr. Sciorra wrote. "Other people in similar financial situations have to pay for these normal costs."

He then directed Mr. Woods, Mr. Gebo and Mr. Cosmo to get together and take care of the issue. Mr. Cosmo followed up by asking the city attorney and the city planner for updates on the issue, but his questions went unanswered.

"I delegate something to you, I expect you get it done and bring it back," said Mr. Sciorra. "That isn't different for any other kind of contract."

On Aug. 5, 2010, Mr. Sciorra made his last request for information about the status of the Knox Street house before signing a purchase agreement with the tenants of the property in April 2011. He said he assumed his department heads were working on the matter.

"I wasn't necessarily putting anything on an interval schedule," he said. "Things go out and they come back and you review them again."

Mr. Sciorra said his assumption was that the matter was in the capable hands of his department heads and did not require his constant supervision.

"I think people have lost sight of the fact that the city manager is looking at things in a more overview, not at the minutiae," he said. "I don't know how much salt we used last winter. If I need to know, the director of Public Works provides that number for me."