PLATTSBURGH -- The town supervisor from Peru did not receive a buyout option to vacate his position, says the town's attorney.

Donald Covel, who was elected to the supervisor's position in 2005 and has been mired in controversial issues ever since, twice stated on public record during Town Council meetings that he had received a financial incentive to step down.

That issue became a hot topic in town following a Press-Republican article published last month as several town residents approached the council to learn if the buyout offer was true.

Town Attorney Donald Biggs adamantly denied the claim in that article but has also attempted to clarify the issue through public statements at subsequent meetings and with a letter to Covel's attorney, Salvatore Ferlazzo from Albany.

"I'd like to be able to move on from this issue, but I think the public needs to know this didn't happen," Biggs said of the claims.

In his letter, Biggs said the remarks attributed to Covel were "factually inaccurate and are disparaging to both me personally and the law firm of which I am a member" and added that those inaccuracies could not be ignored.

FERlazzo represented Covel in an action for defamation brought by Covel against councilors Peter Glushko, Cortland Forrence and Thomas Powers as well as former councilor Roger Bonner. That action was subsequently dismissed by the courts.

During the legal action, however, Biggs submitted a motion for summary judgment to Ferlazzo's office asking the court to completely dismiss the action. While that motion was pending, Ferlazzo contacted Biggs with a possible settlement scenario.

"You suggested your client would voluntarily discontinue the action and also resign as supervisor for the Town of Peru if he could be assured that both he and his wife were provided health insurance," Biggs wrote to Ferlazzo in the letter.

Biggs responded to that suggestion by stating he did not believe such an action would be either "legal or practical."

The topic was dropped at that point, but the issue of health insurance was revisited a month later, Biggs said, when the council was considering an option that might provide Covel and his wife, along with all other employees in a similar situation, with health insurance upon retirement.

"I made it clear that I was not suggesting that the town would offer these benefits in exchange for anything, and certainly not Mr. Covel's discontinuance of the defamation suit or resignation from office," Biggs said.

Covel said he could not remember what he might have said during the two meetings but added that he would not back down from anything he did say.

Biggs had asked Ferlazzo to sign and return the letter if he was in agreement with the information or to contact him if Ferlazzo had any problems with the content. Ferlazzo did not return the signed letter but verbally informed Biggs that he did not intend to take issue with any portion of the letter.

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