A new face was seated in the corporation counsel chair at the Peekskill Common Council meeting Tuesday, Oct. 15 at City Hall.
Ingrid O’Sullivan, the Peekskill city prosecutor, got a last-minute call to come over to City Hall just before the meeting began to fill the empty chair for the evening.
O’Sullivan became the short-notice substitute because Michael Hartman, the city’s acting corporation counsel, wasn’t in his spot at the table. Hartman had been summoned into City Manager Matt Alexander’s office earlier that day and told he was relieved of his duties.
Hartman’s sudden dismissal came just eight days after he presented his proposed 2025 budget before the council. The assumption that Hartman would be managing that budget turned out to be incorrect.
Hartman was hired as the city’s assistant corporation counsel in 2022 when Tim Kramer was corporation counsel. He became acting corporation counsel when Kramer left in October of 2023.
Alexander told the Herald that he decided to make the change in the corporation counsel office to provide the city with a greater depth of legal advice on the wide range of matters the city faces.
He hired the White Plains based law firm Keane & Beane to fill the role of city attorney.
“We are excited to have an opportunity to work with Keane & Beane, whose practice is more than 50% dedicated to working with public entities in the government world,” Alexander said. “We’re impressed with the breadth and depth of their abilities and excited to work with a municipal law firm that has experience in all different kinds of legal challenges that municipalities face.”
Alexander did not address why Hartman was removed at this time. Hartman could not be reached for comment for this article.
Keane & Beane attorney Eric Gordon will be the firm’s primary lawyer handling the Peekskill account. Attorneys from Keane & Beane will be on site at City Hall. There is no set length of time that the arrangement will continue, Alexander said.
The Common Council approved Alexander’s move with a resolution added to the evening’s agenda just before the meeting. The resolution stated that Keane & Beane would remain pending the hiring of a corporation counsel and deputy corporate counsel. The fee paid will not exceed $50,000 for the balance of 2024. Councilmember Ramon Fernandez, currently facing an investigation by the Board of Ethics because of a ticket-fixing scandal involving former City Judge Reginald Johnson, abstained from voting.
Turmoil in corporate counsel office
Problems in the Peekskill Corporation Counsel office came to light in September 2023 when the Herald reported that then City Corporation Counsel Tim Kramer failed to respond by a court deadline in a liability case involving former Peekskill City Police Officer Jonathan Mosquera.
Peekskill ultimately paid a $1 million default judgment in that case but could have possibly won the case if the city had responded in a timely manner.
After a second lawsuit was revealed by the Herald that could have resulted in a second default judgment because of the city’s failure to file court papers on time, Kramer left as corporation counsel in October 2023.
At that point Hartman was serving as assistant corporation counsel under Kramer and when Kramer left he became acting corporation counsel. Only one of the city’s two corporate attorney positions has been filled since then and now both positions are vacant.
Prior to Kramer taking over as corporation counsel Melissa Ferraro held the position for six and a half years before leaving in January 2022 to become the village administrator in Dobbs Ferry.
In his proposed 2025 budget Alexander funds a corporation counsel role at $144,744 but not an assistant corporation counsel position. Money to pay outside legal counsel to represent the city is budgeted at $185,625.
Keane & Beane, P.C. was founded by Edward F. Beane and Thomas Keane in May 1980, with offices in White Plains and Rye. The firm was originally part of Keane & Butler, which was founded in 1969 with offices in New York City, White Plains, and Rye. Its founding members, Tom Keane and Tom Butler, were both Rye residents. In 1980, the Westchester offices headed by Tom Keane and Ed Beane decided to go out on their own.
Since then, the four-attorney practice has grown to be one of the largest law firms in Westchester County, with over 30 attorneys whose average tenure is 18 years. Keane & Beane opened additional offices in Fishkill (2008), New York City (2017) and Long Island (2024).
Attorneys in the municipal law department represent and have represented many municipalities as general or special counsel, including the Villages of Pleasantville, Rye Brook and Spring Valley; Suffern, Ardsley, Pelham, the Towns of Bedford, Haverstraw, Lewisboro, Red Hook, New Castle, North Castle, Orangetown and Pelham; the Cities of Beacon, Poughkeepsie and Peekskill; and the Counties of Orange, Putnam and Ulster.
