Successful Defense of the County Executive Dispute over Authority Granted by a County Charter

Hodgson Russ successfully represented a county executive in a dispute with another elected official over the scope of the elected officials ability to establish specific salaries for managerial appointments. The case turned on the interpretation of provisions within the county's charter, which were unique to the county.  Employing the authority granted to it by this State Legislature to adopt charter provisions, the legislature had reserved for itself the authority to establish salaries, but the elected official asserted that the grant of budget Tory authority sufficient to pay a specific salary was the equivalent of approval of that higher salary. Hodgson Russ successfully argued that municipal authority is not expanded beyond what is explicitly stated in the law, and that the rules of statutory interpretation prevented the elected official from transferring budgetary authority from the county legislature to the official.