Town Attorney to Attend Future Council Meetings

The East Hampton Town Council will have a new addition to its meetings.

The council voted unanimously at its May 10 meeting to have town attorney Jean D’Aquila present at future meetings.

The idea came at the request of the new interim town manager, John Weichsel.

“You may or may not sense it, but I’m sure you having a legal advisor right here, you’ll be able to shut off a lot of delay and extraneous comments and so on,” Weichsel said.

"To be frank, communities involved with quite a bit of litigation and legal matters ... it will be very helpful to you. The eight of us might like to think we know everything there is to know in the world, but the attorney knows the law better than us and it would be good to have her right here to avoid what might be characterized as a human error. So, I strongly recommend that be OK. There’s a small cost but that’s trivial.”

When pressed a bit about the cost, Weichsel said: “I don’t think you will notice it. Bear in mind, you will save money in the long run with certain things she will bring to our attention.”

In his experience as town manager in Southington, Weichsel said there was considerable participation by the town attorney, saying there wasn’t a meeting the Southington Town Attorney was at that he was not actively involved in discussion.

Weichsel did not think D’Aquila needed to be at other board meetings, however.

“That’s a bit much to ask that,” he said. “The general understanding I’m sure is, if a given board has a heavy legal matter, then they will ask for Jean to come. Routinely, the other board meetings, I would not recommend that.”

D’Aquila, who has been a member of the Connecticut Bar since 1984, has, according to her web site, served as town attorney to numerous Connecticut municipalities during her almost 25 years in the private practice of law.

D’Aquila attended the May 10 council meeting but will miss the May 24th one because she will be on vacation.