St. Hilaire grilled over conflict defender's departure

CANTON — Several St. Lawrence County legislators Monday night questioned Administrator Karen M. St. Hilaire over the resignation of the county's conflict defender.

The conflict defender, William J. Galvin, submitted his resignation earlier this month and plans to leave the position today. Mr. Galvin was hired in April 2004 to head the office that takes on criminal and Family Court cases the public defender's office cannot handle owing to conflicts of interest.

Mr. Galvin presented Ms. St. Hilaire his letter of resignation June 9 after he requested a vacant secretary's position for his office be filled.

Ms. St. Hilaire told legislators Monday that she told Mr. Galvin by e-mail he would have to fill out a vacancy form. She said she reminded him the county was under a hiring freeze and said the position would be reviewed after 30 days by the Board of Legislators.

Legislator J. Patrick Turbett, D-Potsdam, told Ms. St. Hilaire that it was up to the board to decide the filling of vacancies, not her.

"You should have said, 'I'll ask the board. It's their policy,'" Mr. Turbett said.

Ms. St. Hilaire said she was following the policy set by the board. She also said she had called Mr. Galvin on a number of occasions to talk with him, to no avail.

"I did not have an opportunity to speak with him," she said.

Ms. St. Hilaire also said it wasn't until after Mr. Galvin had resigned that she learned a second secretary in his office would be relocating and there was a possibility the office would have no secretaries at all. The finance committee later approved the hiring of a secretary for the office.

Legislator Peter W. FitzRandolph, D-Canton, questioned a change in policy that saw Mr. Galvin's office subjected to extra cases, presumably because of the vacancy of a public defender.

"This overloaded the conflict defender's office in a way Mr. Galvin found difficult," Mr. FitzRandolph said.

He said it was his understanding the extra caseload was the "last straw" for Mr. Galvin. Mr. FitzRandolph said shifting the caseload was a "fairly large policy-making decision."

Ms. St. Hilaire told Mr. FitzRandolph the decision was not a change in policy but a decision made after meeting with Lisa Vecchio from the indigent defense office and Mr. Galvin. Without a public defender, more than 300 cases had to be picked up by other attorneys from county offices, Ms. St. Hilaire said.

Mr. Galvin did not attend Monday night's meeting.

Shortly after he submitted his resignation letter earlier this month, Mr. Galvin told the Times, "I'm not satisfied with the way my office is being handled by the county."