Kessler appointed Ithaca District Attorney

ITHACA, NY — Victor Kessler was unanimously appointed Ithaca City Attorney by the City Council on Wednesday.

Kessler first joined the ranks of City Hall as Deputy City Attorney in September 2021. His appointment as City Attorney ends a seven-month search for a key leadership position in the City of Ithaca.

Kessler will now take on a key role advising the city on a number of complex challenges, as well as overseeing litigation brought by or against the city. For example, the city’s groundbreaking public safety reform plan, Reimagining Public Safety, has yet to implement an unarmed force program. To address the area’s growing homeless population, the city is currently implementing a “permitted encampment zone” where individuals are now allowed to live outdoors.

However, Kessler did not want to comment on specific initiatives or issues facing the city.

“This is where I’ll start: ‘No comments,'” he said in an interview.

He takes office at a time when City Hall residents are still adjusting to the transition to a city manager form of government. Administrative authority in the city transferred from an elected mayor to an appointed city manager in early 2024. That transition was accompanied by structural and procedural changes, including a revised process for planning the city’s budget.

That transition convinced Kessler to run for the district attorney’s job. Kessler, who describes himself as a “government idiot,” said that “it was just really exciting to be able to get a new government structure underway.”

He added: “There were a lot of new and exciting perspectives about what government is, what it should be and how we should do things. And I really felt like I could contribute something.”

Kessler attended the University of Chicago, graduating with a BA in anthropology in 2011 before transferring to Georgetown University Law Center, where he earned a JD in 2015. In the summer of 2020, he moved to Ithaca from the Washington, DC area as a “traveling spouse” when his wife accepted a position as a professor at Cornell University.

Before working for the city, Kessler worked for private companies for about six years. Kessler said his move to local government was a long time coming.

He said he paid off his student loans in private practice, which is known to pay better than public sector jobs. With the burden of student loans lifted, Kessler found himself thinking about “what I wanted to do, not what I needed to do.”

“The idea of ​​using my skills, such as they are, to make the city a better place was just very, very appealing to me,” Kessler said. “I like the idea of ​​being involved in my community.”

Although he claims he was initially unconvinced about applying for the job of city attorney, Kessler said he doesn’t normally like being in the spotlight. He said he prefers projects that require him to “dig around in 100-year-old land records and try to find out some little, mysterious piece of city history.”

The city attorney is a highly publicized position and serves as the official legal advisor to the city administration and city council. Kessler said he became more comfortable in the role after serving as acting city attorney for the past seven months.

The vacancy that Kessler has now filled arose when former city attorney Ari Lavine resigned at the end of 2023. Lavine was heavily criticized by city employees and union representatives for his allegedly uncompromising and tough negotiating style in labor contracts with the city’s collective bargaining units.

In November 2022, city employees and union representatives appeared before the City Council and denounced elected city officials for allowing wages to remain stagnant and insisting that Lavine was an obstacle to progress at the bargaining table. The demonstration delayed the City Council’s vote on the annual budget by a week.

Lavine, who served as city attorney for 12 years, insisted he pursued the negotiating goals set for him by city officials and compared the way he was treated to a “mob attack.”

When asked how he viewed the conflict when he ran for district attorney, Kessler said, “It was tough to watch (Lavine) go through that,” adding that he knew Lavine well and respected him. However, Kessler continued, “Our unions were frustrated and they absolutely have a right to speak publicly about their experiences.”

“I think when sensitive situations arise where people have strong feelings and disagree on things, I hope I can approach things with a certain level of humility and ask others to do the same,” Kessler said. “And to avoid those situations. But when it happens, that’s a risk of the position, and that’s one that I accept at the end of the day.”

However, Kessler says he is excited to take on the role of city attorney.

“I’ve been fortunate over the last three years to wake up and look forward to going to work and working with people on all these really important issues,” Kessler said. “It’s a really cool time in the city’s history.”