GENEVA \u2014 Ahmad Whitfield hasn\u2019t attended any City Council meetings since being arrested Jan. 7 on felony drug charges.<\/p>\n
However, the councilor-at-large continues to receive a paycheck, Mayor Jim Cecere confirmed.<\/p>\n
Commenting for the first time since an initial press conference following Whitfield\u2019s arrest on charges of second-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, Cecere reiterated Tuesday that Whitfield is \u201cinnocent until proven guilty.\u201d However, he emphasized there is nothing in the city charter that allows Council to remove him from office, nor eliminate his pay.<\/p>\n
Cecere said Council will \u201ccreate remedies for situations like this. The fact that he has not sat in on one Council meeting since being elected (in November) is an issue. He has not fulfilled that obligation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only has Whitfield not shown up to any meetings \u2014 there have generally been at least two a month \u2014 he has not engaged in any Council communications, Cecere said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s copied in on everything,\u201d he said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t engage, doesn\u2019t respond, doesn\u2019t participate. I asked him to attend any and every meeting he could as an elected councilor-at-large and he clearly has not.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the wake of Whitfield\u2019s arrest, Cecere had suggested he consider resigning in the best interest of the city.<\/p>\n
Ontario County District Attorney Jason MacBride wrote in an email Wednesday morning that Whitfield is due to appear in front of Ontario County Judge Gregory McCaffery July 6.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere could be a resolution to the matter,\u201d MacBride said.<\/p>\n
If Whitfield is convicted of a felony, he would be removed from office.<\/p>\n
Neither Whitfield nor his attorney, Joseph Lobosco, responded to requests for comment by email as of Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
Ward 4 Councilor Peter Gillotte, who is deputy mayor, said no one on City Council has spoken with Whitfield since his arrest. He also urged him to fulfill his duties.<\/p>\n
\u201cCouncilor Whitfield is still a city councilor,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve never said, \u2018Don\u2019t come.\u2019 We\u2019ve wanted him to be (at meetings).\u201d<\/p>\n
Gillotte noted that Whitfield has prided himself as a councilor who represents Geneva\u2019s less fortunate, and that his lack of Council participation has left a \u201cbig void.\u201d Cecere agreed and urged Whitfield to return to his Council job.<\/p>\n
City Clerk Nicole Tillotson continues to read Whitfield\u2019s name when doing attendance at the start of meetings, Cecere noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis seat is there. It\u2019s ready for him,\u201d the mayor said.<\/p>\n
No other city councilors responded to a request for comment on the Whitfield matter as of Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA \u2014 Ahmad Whitfield hasn\u2019t attended any City Council meetings since being arrested Jan. 7 on felony drug…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[47969,34185,4436,1655,10321,28998,65,27142,31508,5512,2521],"class_list":["post-95974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-ahmad-whitfield","tag-city-council","tag-controlled-substance","tag-crime","tag-criminal-law","tag-drug-prohibition","tag-geneva","tag-geneva-city","tag-local-government","tag-mayor","tag-new-york"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116850327863308856","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}