12/15/2009 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 12-IS-2009 encourage you not to trade your vote for some future benefit, and that is my parting request to you. Law Director Dubelko: 1) He said this is his last report, and the Law Department Secretary is preparing an annual report which will be provided ~o Councilman Gareau when he assumes office. Law Director Dubelko read from a letter that has been incorporated into these minutes: I begin this report with anapology-an apology both in the traditional sense of an explanation and defense of my performance in office but also as an expression of regret that my performance was not often as good as it should have been: This apology is to the members of Council, to the Mayor and his Directors, and to the voters. Frankly, I think that this is what every elected official should do upon leaving office. It is such an honor and high responsibility to serve as an elected official in Amsric~--at any level of government. We in America live both in the greatest democracy an the face of the Earth and in one of the most challenging times facing that democracy. That being so, if we as elected officials just show up for work, if we just earn our paych~ek, if we just perform our duties, and even if we always honor our oath of office, it's not enough; we haven't done enough. If we can't say that on each and every day that we served we made a real difference as elected officials-and in my case, to say that for each and every day of my service, I provided you with all the legal advice and guidance that you needed to perform your duties as elected officials at a level of excellence, then we've come up short--I've come up short, and an apology is appropriately owed to you and to the people that have elected me. After reflecting upon my eight years in office as an elected official, I know that I've come up short and so I begin by apologizing to all of you. There is value in an apology not just in that it helps to cleanse one's soul, but also because it may help other elected officials in North Olmsted, both present and future, to profit from the shortcomings in your service and thus it may help these officials to better serve in the future and to thereby better protect and promote both our City and the wonderful democracy in which we all live. When I decided to run for this elected position some nine years ago, I sincerely wanted to doing things that would improve upon the service of my predecessor, Michael R. Gareau, Sr., who had served North Olmsted as Law Director at a level of excellence far twenty- eight years. I knew very well-better than most -that Mike Gareau, Sr., would be a very tough act to follow. Mike hired me as a Law Clerk way back in 1978, and, after I completed a clerkship in the Cuyahoga County Court of Appeals{ he hired me again as his Assistant Law Director in 1981. I would serve him and the City for the next twenty years in that capacity before becoming Law Director myself in 2002. Mike Gareau, Sr., thus became, and was for these many years, my mentor in the practice of law, and more particularly in municipal law. Mike Sr. taught me my profession and showed me by his own performance how a municipal lawyer should serve his municipal clients and the public. Mike Gareau, Sr., as Law Director, was - he actually still is - a skilled politician, a passionate lawyer, and a man of great morals and principles. Like Isaid - a tough act for anyone to follow and particularly for me to follow. 4 „~~~._~,