Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi
JAMESTOWN – Mayor Sam Teresi says he’s still weighing his options when it comes to appointing a second city judge.
On Monday, a report by the Post-Journal had said that current part-time city judge George Panebianco will not seek the recently created second full-time city judge position. That leaves it up to Teresi to appoint a local attorney and so far, he says he’s yet to make a decision.
“Several candidates have stepped forward and I have reached out to a couple of other candidates,” Teresi said, adding, “As I’ve said before I will take all the time I need but only the time I need to make the best decision that I can. This is a long-term decision that is going to have an impact on life in this community for years to come – ten years to be exact – and its not a duty that I take lightly.”
The mayor adds that he has about six possible candidates for the position, although he would not say who they were. He also said he would be making the appointment in the next couple of weeks. “The procedure for filling those positions in the statute, was the mayor and the chief executive officer of the community would appoint the incoming judge, subject to the advice and consent of the legislative branch of the local unit of government,” Teresi explained.
On Monday, WRFA reported that city attorney Marilyn Fiore-Lehman was a possible candidate, based on information from an individual who asked not to be identified. However, both Teresi and Fiore-Lehman declined to comment on that possibility.
In order for an individual to be appointed city judge, he or she needs to be a resident of city and has to have practiced law for at least five years. Teresi said he may announce his selection later this month.
[…] Teresi has not indicated when he’d announce who his selection would be – although on March 31 he told WRFA he’d like to finalize his choice by the end of this month – so there is a possibility the selection will be announced during the April voting […]