City Council members are in no hurry to oblige his request. During Monday’s meeting, members of the Finance Committee unanimously approved a resolution requesting Larson pay back money for dental insurance coverage, meaning the full council can act on the resolution at the council’s monthly voting session.

“I certainly hope this doesn’t get that far to resolve that,” said Tony Dolce, R-Ward 2 and council president, during the Finance Committee.

Larson read his statement during Monday’s City Council work session, which came after the Finance Committee meeting. It is printed on Page A3 of today’s edition of The Post-Journal. Larson, who has also served as Chautauqua County attorney as well as owning his own private law practice, questioned who wrote the resolution being discussed during Monday’s council meeting since Elliot Raimondo, the city’s corporation counsel, wrote the agreement between Larson and the city.

Contrary to the resolution pending before the council, Larson said there is precedent for a retiring City Court judge to receive dental benefits upon retirement set by former Judge Sam Alessi. Larson said the state Office of Court Administration said in March 2022 it had no objection to the city offering dental insurance to Larson and that Larson agreed to the city’s May 10, 2024, agreement to cancel the dental insurance in exchange for sending Larson a refund of the premium he had paid for all of 2024.

Fred Larson, a former Jamestown City Court judge, current CHautauqua County legislator and former City Council member, reads a prepared statement during Monday’s council meeting asking for an apology from Mayor Kim Ecklund and Assemblyman Andrew Goodell as well as asking for the council to pull a resolution requesting a state Comptroller’s Office investigation into retiree dental benefits Larson received after signing an agreement with former Mayor Eddie Sundquist P-J photo by John Whittaker

Larson also questions the involvement of Assemblyman Andy Goodell in the matter.

“The money Ecklund and Goodell now demand, $1,576.70, instead of the refund promised in the City’s May 10, 2024 letter is under the $5,000 jurisdictional limit of Small Claims Court. The City of Jamestown does not even need a lawyer to present its claim in Small Claims Court,” Larson said. “So why is this defamatory Resolution here tonight? This city is using this dispute to make sure that as many thousands of my former clients and as many thousands of County Legislature District 12 constituents as possible would see my good name dragged through the mud. Mayor Ecklund with the apparent assistance of Andrew Goodell has, with actual malice, subjected my family to a living nightmare. For starters, including but not limited to, to mitigate the great damage done to me and my family, I demand a public written apology from Mayor Ecklund and from Andrew Goodell by next Monday, August 26. I demand the withdrawal of this defamatory resolution from the City Council agenda.”

Sundquist made a statement Sunday after The Post-Journal and WRFA-LP published stories on the resolution. The council resolution said City Council members had not approved the dental insurance benefits for Larson and didn’t know about the benefits because of a confidentiality agreement. Sundquist said agreements such as the one he made with Larson have been common practice in the city.

“The agreement to provide dental benefits arose after Judge Larson’s retirement,” Sundquist said. “It was determined that Judge Larson had been on the city’s benefit plan in the past. His retirement triggered a review of benefits. Since he was already receiving dental benefits, we conducted a legal review to determine if those benefits could continue. It was determined it would be both legal and in the best interest of the city to execute an agreement and continue benefits as this was the city’s past practice with prior City Court judges. Formal agreements related to the city’s healthcare plan is common practice and have been entered into with non-employees in the past going back several administrations.”

City Council members do not agree. During Monday’s work session, there was a back-and-forth between council members and Tom Nelson, a current Chautauqua County legislator representing part of Jamestown and a former City Council member. Nelson said he was in attendance supporting Larson and questioning how the city can go back on an agreement that was approved by the city.

“It was agreed upon by your corporation counsel,” said Nelson, who argued the agreement between Sundquist and Larson is in the same legal reasoning as a school superintendent negotiating with a teacher’s union. “IF our administrator negotiated with the school board and the school board agree with those, I would say those agreements are binding. That’s what’s happening here.”

Councilman Jeff Russell, R-At Large, asked Nelson how union employees who have bargained for benefits should feel when benefits are easily given to those Russell said haven’t earned them.

“I’m a little upset by the fact that someone who’s not part of a union gets the same sort of a benefit that I enjoy today,” Russell said. “It’s just handed to him and they didn’t have to fight for it. From what I understand, Judge Alessi was a city employee.”

Councilman Russell Bonfiglio, R-At Large, said the fact Alessi was at one point a city employee makes the extension of retiree benefits to Larson a different matter than the agreement the city reached with Alessi, while Russell and Bonfiglio both took issue with the fact the City Council was never asked to approve the extension of benefits.

“I’m really appalled at what he’s trying to do,” Bonfiglio said. “He was making over $100,000 a year and he wants us to give him dental insurance that he doesn’t deserve. Everything in this resolution is true. We tried to keep this private and personal and get it without any public knowledge. A letter was written to him but Mr. Larson is always right, so he’s doing what he’s doing. That’s fine, he’s got that right. We tried to do this the right way. The mayor tried to do this the right way. This council knew nothing about this. I wasn’t here, but the council knew nothing about this deal. It was definitely a back door deal.”