WESTLAKE
Despite contending with an ballot issue that could make their election moot, both candidates for Westlake law director are moving ahead full steam with their campaigns, touting their extensive experience as prosecutors and assistant municipal law directors.
Andrea Rocco, is pointing to her longstanding ties to the community, including a decade on the Westlake City Schools Board of Education.
Michael P. Maloney, is citing the endorsement of current Law Director John Wheeler and several City Council members, including President Mike Killeen.
Rocco, 52, who was hired by Mayor Dennis Clough in 2002 to work on municipal human resource matters. In 2005, Wheeler hired her as assistant law director/prosecutor, a position she held until 2013.
Rocco said she knows the job and the community.
“I’m deeply committed to our community and understand the residents and their concerns,” she said.
Rocco noted much of the law department’s work involves contracts, an area in which she said she has extensive experience. As prosecutor, Rocco worked closely with Westlake police, she said, and has received the endorsements of the police patrol personnel and firefighters unions. The departments themselves are legally prohibited from giving endorsements. Rocco has served as legal counsel to the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association.
At an Oct. 2 League of Women Voters candidates forum, Rocco said voters are looking for engagement, effectiveness and experience in a law director. “I can deliver on all three,” she said.
“My legal experience encompasses municipal law, criminal law, agency law and civil law, both as an assistant director of law and an Ohio assistant attorney general,” said Rocco, who received her law degree from Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.
During her tenure from 2013-2014 as Cuyahoga County Clerk of Courts, Rocco was credited for implementing reforms and efficiencies to the court system.
In the elections for which she ran for school board, Rocco was the top vote recipient in the multi-candidate elections.
Maloney, 56, has served since December 2000 as assistant law director in Parma, specializing in civil matters. He operates his own Westlake-based law firm concentrating on criminal litigation.
Maloney, who also earned his law degree from Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, cited his 24 years of experience as an assistant law director and prosecutor as his qualifications for the job. He claimed “broader experience in both civil and criminal law, as both plaintiff and defense counsel, and my experience in both the public and private sector.”
The law department will be dealing with ongoing civil litigation, Maloney said, including the dispute with Cleveland’s Division of Water and a lawsuit, now in arbitration, filed by Crocker Park. Because of my background, I am ready and able to handle this type of work using either law department attorneys or outside counsel,” Maloney said.
Maloney said he intends to keep the law department going in the direction Wheeler has been leading it. Wheeler said he’s endorsing Maloney because he sought his endorsement first and believes Maloney has broader legal experience.
Hanging over the race is Issue 54, a proposed charter amendment that would give the mayor the right to appoint the law director without the confirmation by City Council. If voters approve Issue 54, which is on Nov. 7 ballot, neither Rocco or Maloney would take office unless the mayor appoints one of them.
Not surprisingly, both Rocco and Maloney oppose Issue 54, which was placed on the ballot in a petition drive led by Clough.
Should Issue 54 fail, whoever is elected will serve a four-year term and be paid $90,000, a salary set by City Council last December.
Both candidates said they expect to get along with the mayor if elected.
Rocco said she worked well with Clough and his department directors while with the law department and before that as an advisor to the mayor on personnel and human resource issues. “I don’t expect our working relationship to miss a beat,” she said.
Maloney said he stayed in contact with the mayor after he announced his candidacy. “We have a very good relationship,” Maloney said. “I expect the same relationship to continue if elected.”
Both Rocco and Maloney said they would be judicious in spending taxpayers’ money on outside legal counsel. Claims that a previous law director has spent an excess amount of money on outside legal fees was a major issue in the successful 2004 charter amendment campaign that made the law director an elected post.
(Editor’s note: This article was corrected in regard to the dates of Andrea Rocco’s employment with the city of Westlake. She was hired by Mayor Dennis Clough in 2002 to work on municipal human resource matters. In 2005, she was hired as assistant law director/prosecutor, a position she held until 2013.)
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