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Ogdensburg's City Manager Survives Effort To Remove Him

More fireworks in Ogdensburg Tuesday night over the controversial 819 Knox Street home in which a family was allowed to live rent and tax free for three years.

City council members tried to push through a resolution to remove City Manager Art Sciorra over his handling of the issue, but no one voted on that resolution after some surprise information was brought to light.

Mayor Bill Nelson announced at the meeting that someone had leaked pieces of a confidential report to the Watertown Daily Times. The news was not well received by other council members.

"To have that integrity compromised . . . I just can't get my head around it," said council member Michael Powers.

City officials had launched an investigation into the way the property was handled. The results were released to council members last week, but were not made public.

"There is information that could be considered confidential in the report," Mayor Bill Nelson said.

The announcement that the report was leaked was followed by word from City Attorney Andrew Silver that since he put the it together himself, he was recusing himself from giving council members guidance on the report.

After a closed-door session, Nelson announced that no action would be taken on Tuesday to remove Sciorra.

Ogdensburg residents weren't too happy with the way Tuesday's meeting unfolded.

"That makes the whole situation look bad and putting the city of Ogdensburg on the map like this is very shameful," Ogdensburg resident John Oakes said.

City officials are now looking for outside counsel to give them guidance on how to move forward.

Monday, May 21, 2012
, Watertown, NY

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