Judge overturns Orange County Legislature’s decision; grants four legislators legal representation

A Judge on Tuesday ruled that Orange County must provide legal defense to four legislators should they face a lawsuit after they raised questions about the County’s StarCIO contract for Information Technology services last October.

Acting Justice of the Supreme Court Tim McElDuff also ordered the County to pay for any legal fees and judgments incurred by Legislators Michael Paduch, the Democratic minority leader, Genesis Ramos, Laurie Tautel, and Mike Anagnostakis. The four legislators participated in a news conference led by Senator James Skoufis (D, Cornwall) that raised questions about the propriety of an $800,000 contract given to the owner of StarCIO last October. The Orange County Legislature had voted to allocate $50,000 to hire an outside attorney to defend Legislative Chairwoman Katie Bonelli’s decision not to provide legal defense to her Legislative colleagues. Paduch, Ramos, Tautel, and Anagnostakis were represented by high-profile Goshen attorney Michael Sussman in the case.

“Judge McElDuff upheld the law and saw through the political theatre and abuse of power put forth by the chairwoman of the legislature in her initial decision to deny us representation and indemnification for doing our due diligence as fiduciary agents of the county who owe our integrity to the county taxpayers,” said Ramos, a Democrat. “While it is a victory for the legislators who stood on the right side of things and spoke out against mismanagement of almost a million dollars in taxpayer funds, it is a loss for county taxpayers who footed the bill for the egregious StarCIO contract and the chairwoman who wasted $50,000 of taxpayer money to fight us on our right to use our voice as elected officials.”

“The court upheld the rule of law,” Sussman added. “He overruled purely partisan decisions and I could not be more pleased with this decision.”

Since Skoufis and the four legislators raised their concerns about the StarCIO contract, the FBI has convened its own investigation into the awarding of the IT agreement. The FBI subpoenaed information from the County in January. According to several sources, FBI agents have interviewed current and former employees of Orange County government, including management and rank-and-file staff, over the past several months about StarCIO and a range of other matters, dating back to at least the COVID-19 pandemic four years ago.

In February, the Democratic lawmakers who questioned the StarCIO contract were notified by Bonelli that they would not be indemnified if the company filed a lawsuit because she believed the comments made at the news conference were political and were not made by the legislators while acting in their official capacity. Bonelli’s decision was supported in a vote by Republicans along with Democrat Kevindaryan Lujan.

In response to the denial of legal representation, the four legislators privately hired Sussman.

“I look forward to the day the truth comes out and we get to the bottom of everything we spoke out against,” Ramos said. “I maintain everything I said in October 2023 and will always advocate for the taxpayer’s best interests.”