Town counsel resigns

By Mary Carey
Staff Writer

Published on December 01, 2006

His 18 years on the job was a "great run" and he has "nothing but fondness for Amherst," said Alan Seewald, who resigned as town counsel last week.

"I'm so thankful to the people of Amherst for allowing me to serve them that way and have the experience I had that was fabulous," Seewald, who practices 5 East Pleasant St. with the firm Seewald, Jankowski & Spencer PC, said this week.

"I'll still be here," he added.

Citing unspecified issues with Seewald's performance, Town Manager Laurence Shaffer, who started the job in July, requested the town attorney's resignation in recent weeks.

"We had a conversation about whether or not it made sense for him to continue on as town counsel," Shaffer said. "I think it's best left that I want to acknowledge and appreciate attorney Seewald for his past service to the town, but in my opinion the town's best interest was to move forward."

In a one-sentence letter to Shaffer filed with the town clerk Nov. 20, Seewald wrote only, "As per your request please accept this letter as my resignation from the position of town counsel for the Town of Amherst."

Not being town counsel will give him more opportunity to represent residents of Amherst and surrounding communities, Seewald said.

Gary S. Brackett, of Worcester, will be Amherst's interim town counsel, until a permanent successor to Seewald is hired.

The town spent $160,000 on legal services last year, but the cost wasn't a factor in the decision to let Seewald go, Shaffer said.

The town manager has the authority to hire and discharge the town counsel. The Select Board had absolutely nothing to do with the decision, Shaffer said.

"I was very struck by Mr. Seewald's accessibility and availability." Select Board member Gerald Weiss said Monday.Weiss said Seewald would take phone calls and respond to email anytime including on weekends.

Select Board member Robie Hubley said Seewald had given him "invaluable and patent help" on many occasions, including at one Select Board meeting that went until 1:45 a.m.

Anne Awad, the Select Board chairwoman, praised Seewald's service, but said she fully supports Shaffer's decision.

"I appreciate the fact that you had to come in and do an assessment of an entire complex situation," Awad told the town manager.

Shaffer said he would convene a group of key town staff, the chairpeople of various regulatory boards and a Select Board member, to investigate whether it would make sense to hire someone as the town attorney or whether to issue a request for proposals from private firms to succeed Seewald.

In Vernon, Conn., where Shaffer was town administrator before succeeding Barry Del Castilho in the Amherst post, an outside counsel was hired as has been the case in Amherst. In Keene, N.H., and Oneonta, N.Y., other towns where Shaffer has worked, there was an in-house counsel.

Shaffer said he anticipates taking action sometime within the first three months of next year.

The Select Board and Shaffer have consulted Brackett, the Worcester attorney, on several matters in recent months. It was on Seewald's recommendation that the board initially consulted Brackett during the town manager hiring process earlier this year.

In August, Hubley said he was surprised to see that Brackett - not Seewald - would be representing at a hearing connected with a land use case at Eastern Hampshire District Court.

Shaffer explained at the time that Brackett would be handling cases involving the ZBA as it was configured before the resignation of longtime member Zina Tillona.

Select Board members had called Brackett in, because they were seeking a second opinion on whether Tillona could hear ongoing ZBA cases after turning in her resignation, as has been her panel's custom.

Shaffer said keeping Brackett on for cases involving the ZBA when Tillona was aboard was a "business decision."

Shutesbury land use lawyer Michael Pill questioned the decision at the time, saying, "I don't think the Select Board appreciates what kind of a first rate land use lawyer they have in Alan."

Developer Scott Nielsen, represented by Pill, has since filed suit in Land Court over Nielsen's plan to build 24 condominiums on South East Street, a case the ZBA had been hearing for months with Tillona onboard. The case was ongoing when Brackett offered his opinion that she had already retired from the board and shouldn't continue to hear it.