Today, the Syracuse Common Council made it official: They've hired their own lawyer to "pursue mall expansion matters" (P-S - WSYR).

What does this mean? Well, no one really knows. See, the state court of appeals today accepted the mayor's withdrawal of the appeal of the lawsuit that Pyramid won March 9. The Common Council – which hasn't hired its own lawyer since 1984 (when I was eight, and had never heard of Syracuse, so I couldn't tell you what for) – could appeal the lawsuit on its own. But it's not clear they'll get anywhere, what with the city having technically already dropped the appeal.

The council could conceivably sue Pyramid for something, the mayor for shutting out a branch of government, the county legislature for breach of trust (the legislature had said it would follow the Common Council's lead), SIDA for pretty much anything, since it's an appointed board and really just does what the mayor tells it to do.

What I can say for sure: The next three and a half years are going to be hell at the city level in Syracuse. When the mayor decided to exclude the Common Council on the biggest issue facing the city, he screwed up royally – he'll either have to figure out how to avoid the council on every other decision he makes for the rest of his term, or he'll have to at some point come groveling back and convince the council to work together with him. And in fact, the settlement deal probably would have been approved if the mayor had taken the time to include a couple of members of the council in the negotiations and addressed their concerns.

Instead, he just decided he didn't need to be accountable to anyone but himself.