GALION- Galion City Council members met in a special meeting on Wednesday, January 18 to hear two pieces of legislation regarding legal counsel.

Ordinance 2023-6 was the first piece of legislation brought before council and it stated to entitle an ordinance amending Ordinance No. 2023-4 authorizing attorney Patrick Kasson of Reminger CO., LPA to represent the city of Galion as co-counsel in a pending litigation and to now authorize Mac Malone to do the same, and declaring an emergency.

Within the ordinance it also stated, the City of Galion Director of Law Thomas Palmer would still act at all times as the co-counsel in the matter.

“The first one here is to authorize Pat Kasson to represent the city in litigation. He was the attorney given to us by our insurance company and he is unable to do that. There was another attorney in his firm that will step in to do that and that is Mac Malone. It is the same exact law firm,” Palmer said.

Following discussion, council made a motion to suspend the rules for three readings of the ordinance to proceed for a final reading. The motion passed by council. Then, council made a motion to pass the ordinance, and the motion passed.

Moving forward, Ordinance 2023-7 was presented and it stated to entitle an ordinance authorizing attorney Jeffrey Stankunas of Isaac Wiles & Burkholder, LLC to assist and represent the City of Galion regarding a civil service appeal and declaring an emergency.

“This is relative to a hearing for the Civil Service Commission on the appeal of the termination notice. It will be taking place on Monday, so there was no time. The appeal was filed at the end of December, give or take a couple of days. It is the nature of this that we have been moving at lightning speed trying to get everything in gear to be able to do this. Jeff Stankunas is an experienced attorney with a substantial amount of background in representation in Civil Service Commission matters,” Palmer stated.

Following discussion, council made a motion to suspend the rules for three readings of the ordinance to proceed for a final reading. The motion passed by council. Then, council made a motion to pass the ordinance, and the motion passed.