At its October 14 meeting, the Town of Marlborough Board voted to retain the law firm Thomas, Drohan, Waxman, Petrigrow & Mayle LLP to handle personnel matters related to alleged corruption and abuses of power by the Building Inspector and Code Enforcement Officer, Thomas Corcoran.
The approved referendum can be referenced in the agenda for the October 14th meeting on page 4.
At the start of the meeting, Supervisor Thomas Corcoran addressed public concerns that the Town was hiring a law firm to defend his brother, Thomas Corcoran. Supervisor Corcoran claimed that the law firm was retained to protect the Town from alleged impropriety by Thomas Corcoran in his capacity as Town “personnel” rather than to protect Thomas Corcoran as an individual.
“The Town needs to be protected, and we have to get information back from that attorney,” Corcoran said. “They have to give guidance to these Board members on what decisions they want to make. It’s not hired for that person—it’s hired for the Town’s protection. That person also has attorneys, and if for some reason the Town made a decision that wasn’t right, they could sue the Town.”
Both Building Inspector Thomas Corcoran Jr. and his brother, Supervisor Scott Corcoran, are at the center of controversy after allegations of corruption and wrongdoing in their private and personal capacities were referred to the Attorney General and NYS Comptroller for investigation.
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Supervisor Corcoran’s involvement in those allegations are not referenced in the law firm’s engagement letter.
Councilman Zambitounderscored that the engagement is for “personnel matters, with an E-L, not personal matters with an A-L”. Supervisor Corcoran added that he had placed Councilwoman Sherida Sessa and Deputy Supervisor Gael Appler Jr. in charge of overseeing the work of the law firm to recuse himself, as required by the Town of Marlborough Code of Ethics.
Deputy Supervisor Appler’s impartiality has drawn criticism after he made comments on Facebook in a discussion urging residents to “vote for Scott,” and referred to concerned residents’ posts as a “cesspool.” In the same thread, he accused anonymous commenters of being “cowards” for not disclosing their identities. Several residents responded that they feared retaliation from town officials. Appler refused to address concerns, dismissing the page he chose to comment in as a “hostile forum” and saying he would only answer questions posed in-person at a Town Board meeting.
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