Muriel Goode-Trufant sails through Council hearing for top NYC attorney job

Muriel Goode-Trufant breezed through her City Council confirmation hearing for the role of the city’s top attorney on Wednesday, in sharp contrast to the harsh grilling Mayor Adams’ previous pick for the post faced. 
Goode-Trufant has been serving in the position as acting corporation counsel since June, after Sylvia Hinds-Radix, Adams’ first corporation counsel, resigned. Adams nominated the Law Department veteran to the role in October after the Council rejected lawyer Randy Mastro for the job.
At the Council Rules Committee hearing, Goode-Trufant faced questions about how she would tackle the issue of understaffing at the department and how she would respond if she refused to do something she thought was wrong, over which she might feel compelled to resign in protest.
“Candidly, I have been with the city for 30-plus years; I am [a] Tier 4 [municipal pension plan member], and so I am going to be all right,” Goode-Trufant said. “What I want to make sure is the Law Department is all right. What I will do from the day I am confirmed, for as long as I am privileged to serve, is to build up the department so they can face whatever challenges come their way.”
The City Council is required by law to confirm the nomination for the city’s lawyer, and Goode-Trufant needs a majority of the Council’s 51 members to support her in a vote. The more than $250,000-a-year job involves representing the mayor, Council and city agencies in litigation.
Mastro, the mayor’s previous pick for the post, faced a brutal hearing in August as he faced questions from Council members on his prior role as a top official in Rudy Giuliani’s mayoral administration and his record of representing conservative causes in court. 
“I was away in another time zone, so I did not have the opportunity to watch it,” Goode-Trufant said of Mastro’s grilling.
Goode-Trufant received a far friendlier reception. Council member Pierina Sanchez expressed an “ability to exhale” at her nomination, and some members remarked they would be happy to see a woman of color elevated to the role.  
“I’m glad that after 30 years of distinguished service at the Law Department, you’ll be taking on this top role,” Brooklyn Councilman Lincoln Restler said at the roughly hour-and-a-half hearing.