EAST CHICAGO | Citing the need for a "different point of view," the City Council fired its longtime attorney Joseph Allegretti and began the search for a new legal adviser.

"This council has changed a lot," said Councilman Adrian Santos, D-1st, sponsor of the measure. "We're headed in a new direction, and we thought it was time for a different point of view."

Councilwoman Myrna Maldonado, D-at large, said she and Santos met with Allegretti last week at a Roxana-area lounge and asked him for his resignation, which was not forthcoming.

"We didn't want this to come out on the floor," Santos said. "I asked Mr. Allegretti to do something, and he didn't do it."

Allegretti, a Crown Point resident and city's lawyer since 1995, didn't attend the April 12 council meeting where he was ousted by a 5-4 vote.

Council opponents of the action said the handling of the matter was reminiscent of the "backroom deals" popularly associated with the administration of former Mayor Robert Pastrick, who ran the city for 33 years until his electoral defeat by current Mayor George Pabey in 2004.

"The very same things that some of these same people criticized the previous administration for, they're doing now, said Councilman Robert Garcia, D-5th.

For two council members to meet privately with Allegretti and ask him to step down without first bringing the matter before the entire council ran counter to the principles of transparency in government, Garcia said.

"It wasn't just a meeting of two council members," said Christine Vasquez, D-4th. "The (majority) votes had already been lined up."

"All nine of us should have been informed of any meeting," said Council President Richard Medina, D-at large.

"That's the procedure, and that's what should have been done."

In 2000, Pabey, then an at-large councilman, moved to terminate Allegretti for an alleged lack of effort in support of a council resolution to stop the federal government from storing toxic material dredged from the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal at a former refinery site near Central High School.

Medina seconded the 2000 motion, which failed on a 6-2 vote. A containment facility for the polluted sediment nearly is complete, and dredging is scheduled to begin late next year.

Allegretti remains the attorney for the city's water and sanitary district boards.

Voting for his termination were Jimmy Ventura, D-3rd; Gilda Orange, D-6th; Juda Parks, D-at large; Santos and Maldonado.

Against the firing were Medina, Vasquez, Garcia and Lenny Franciski, D-2nd.