New attorney can be named by Tuesday

A new attorney could be named Tuesday for the city of Port Arthur.

Councilmembers interviewed four candidates a few weeks ago in open session. The include Roxann Cotroneo, William McIlyar, Samer Shobassy and Quentin Price.

On Wednesday council directed Assistant City Manager Albert Thigpen to make an order to “the individual.”

Mayor Thurman Bartie said a job offer was to be presented to the individual. According to a resolution on the city’s website for the July 30 meeting, council wil consider approving Roxann Pais Cotroneu.

Cotroneo has 29 years of municipal law experience and is currently with the Law Office of Roxann Pais Cotroneo where she is legal counsel for various cities, including their officials and employees, since 2013. Prior to this, she was the City Attorney for the City of Harlingen, TX, the Executive Assistant City Attorney – Special Projects for the City of Dallas, TX, the Special Assistant United States Attorney, Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) and Anti-Gang Crime Initiative, and Executive Assistant City Attorney – Chief of Community Prosecution and Community Courts for the City of Dallas.  Cotroneo has a Doctor of Jurisprudence from St. Mary’s School of Law in San Antonio, TX, and a bachelor’s degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin, TX. She completed the 32nd Program of Instruction for Lawyers at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, MA. She was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 1995 and is a certified instructor with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education

With the departure of the previous Port Arthur City Attorney Valecia Tizeno retired from her position.

Veteran attorney James Black has been serving as interim attorney since Tizeno’s retirement earlier this year. He is not in the running for the job.

Tizeno stepped down March 1.

According to city documents, Tizeno was appointed assistant city attorney II in 2003 and appointed to first assistant city attorney in 2006. She was named acting city attorney in 2009 and appointed city attorney on Feb. 23, 2010. She stepped into the role after the previous attorney Mark Sokolow, left.

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