White to skip city council meeting
Post-Tribune (IN)
November 15, 2005
November 15, 2005
* Councilman decides not to take his seat tonight amid council confusion.
Councilman Robert White, convicted last week in federal court on multiple fraud counts, will not take his seat at tonight's city council meeting, his lawyer said.
The move by White spares council officials who said Monday that they were confused by sections of state law that allow White to stay in office until he is sentenced in January, or required him to leave his post immediately after the jury read the verdict last week.
"We're not going to push it," said Frederick T. Work, White's lawyer. "He won't be there."
Work said Monday that White does not have to submit a formal resignation.
The conflicting state laws will be "cleaned up" next week, when the state Legislative Services Agency submits a revised version that says public officials are out of office as soon as a jury verdict or guilty plea is entered, said Staci Schneider, spokeswoman for state Attorney General Steve Carter.
Either statute, the one that would remove White after the jury issued a guilty verdict or the one that would allow him stay until he is sentenced, would be valid until the Legislative Services amendments are passed.
White, who has said he is considering an appeal, was convicted on nine counts of fraud in connection with a scam in which a company owned by his nephew was paid $30,000 to install a gate at the entrance to a city park. White paid another contractor $5,000 to do the work and pocketed the rest, according to court records.
Carter last spring had lobbied to change to state law to automatically remove public officials as soon as they plead or are found guilty at trial after a pair of councilmen in neighboring East Chicago were convicted for their roles in a paving scam that misspent more than $20 million in city funds.
Frank Kollintzas and Joe De La Cruz last spring seemed poised to continue in their jobs until they were sentenced more than a month after their jury verdict was rendered.
Gary City Council President Charles Hughes said Monday that he had gotten conflicting advice from city attorneys, and would not have kept White from attending the meeting.
"All I know is the accounts that I follow in the newspaper," said Hughes, who said he had not spoken to White. "To this point, his concerns are geared more toward his family and he's not preoccupied with this chapter in his life, and the council will move on as well."
Hughes said no moves had yet been made to block White from using his city-issued American Express card or spending from the $10,000 promotional accounts assigned to each council member. White is chairman of the council's Towing Committee and city Planning Commission, and serves on more than a dozen city committees.
"We can safely assume that those matters will be attended to as well," Hughes said.
Lake County Commissioner Rudy Clay said Monday that control of the 2nd District seat will be cleared up this Saturday, after district's Democratic precinct organization meets at noon at the Ambridge-Mann Community Center to vote on a replacement. There are two years left on White's term.
The council Tuesday will vote on an ordinance authorizing the city to pay legal bills for city officials who are found innocent of criminal charges or have charges against them dropped before trial. The statute would not apply to White, who was convicted by a jury.
The legislation, which mirrors state laws also pushed by Carter last year, could help Redevelopment Department Director Vanesse Dabney. Dabney was indicted for lying to federal agents in 2003, but charges against her were dropped a year and $5,000 in legal bills later. The council meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall.
