The Monroe County office building was placed on lockdown after a group of protesters disrupted a special council session to interview three candidates to head the public defenders office. “They totally disregarded what it was that we were saying,” said Reverend Ray Scott. Minister Scott, along with Minister Frankln Florence and State Assemblyman David Gantt were arrested and charged with civil disobedience. They say the Republican majority council ignored their requests for an open selection process. “All we asked was for conversation about this particular issue and they were refusing to even talk to us which showed the height of their arrogance,” said Minister Scott. “This is why the community is enraged over the manner of ignoring a most important issue,” added Minister Florence. “It served only to embarrass the applicants first of all or make it an uncomfortable process for them,” said Majority Leader Dan Quatro. Quatro criticized the protest, calling it a spectacle aimed at undermining the selection process. “Their concerns are baseless. This is a process that from 30-years ago, we looked into it didn’t deviate substantively from that, but at the end of the day when they made it clear that they were only interested in exacerbating partisan tensions it was our responsibility as a legislature to appoint a new public defender,” said Quatro. After interviewing three candidates over several hours in a closed meeting the selection committee emerged with its choice. The Public Safety Committee choice Tim Donaher. Donaher worked under Edward Nowak as an assistant public defender. “We picked Tim Donaher. We thought that all three of the candidates that we interviewed were excellent candidates, all three of them showed a commitment to Monroe County and to helping the indigent, but in the end we thought that the commitment that Tim showed intellectually professionally technical aspects of the job,” said Public Safety Committee Chairman Mike Barker. Minister Scott and Assemblyman Gantt expected the recommendation. “That recommendation we knew that two months ago and we've been saying that’s why they only had three applicants for the position,” said Scott. “What we have is five republicans who did exactly what Mr. Minarek wanted them to do and that’s elect Tim Donaher that was wrong then its wrong now,” added Gantt.
