City Newspaper Archives - 2/2008
POLITICS: Donaher is likely new public defender
Published by Jeremy Moule on Feb 11, 2008
When it meets Tuesday night, the County Legislature is expected to name Tim Donaher, currently an attorney in the public defender's office, as the county's new public defender. At a contentious committee meeting on Saturday, the legislature's Public Safety Committee voted to recommend his appointment.
Critics, who wanted a non-political process, have charged that Republicans planned to appoint Donaher all along.
The legislature's Public Safety Committee met Saturday morning to interview Donaher and two other candidates who applied for the job. Republican legislators on the committee immediately called for the committee to go into executive session, and the audience launched a protest. Democratic members walked out of the meeting, protesting the Republicans' failure to create a non-partisan selection process.
Eventually, police officers cleared protestors from the room, arresting three of them: State Assemblymember David Gantt and community activists Franklin Florence and Ray Scott. [See previous posting.]
The committee reconvened in executive session around 10:30 a.m. and interviewed three candidates. At 12:48 p.m., it went back into open session and voted - with Democrats still absent - to recommend that the Legislature appoint Donaher.
Republicans are in the majority in the legislature, as they are on the Public Safety Committee, so it's likely that Donaher will be appointed,
