Council members trade barbs over legal fees
Amendment boosting contract costs to $40,000 approved by 5-2 vote
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER
Staff Writer

SCOTT PILLING staff The group Beatlemania, the headliner act at the opening of SummerFest last week, belts out a selection from the Beatles' early days. The event was held at Windward Beach off Princeton Avenue.

BRICK TOWNSHIP - Township Councilman Daniel Toth's refusal to approve the final cost of legal fees stemming from a lawsuit filed by the mayor was "unconscionable," Councilwoman Ruthanne Scaturro said at a recent meeting.

Council members squabbled over a portion of the $77,000 in attorney fees racked up from the lawsuit, at the July 10 council meeting. The vote to amend the contract with attorney John Carbone from $17,500 to $40,000 was 5-2. Toth and Democratic Councilwoman Kathy Russell voted no. Russell is the lone Democrat on the council.

Toth, who balked at upping the fees in another contract connected with the lawsuit in April, said he thought the final bill was "kind of excessive."

"I didn't agree with the lawsuit to begin with," he said. "Seventy-seven thousand dollars is a lot of money," he said. "I don't agree with the principle."

Toth's comments angered Scaturro, who interrupted him to object.

"You know what? You were the same council person that couldn't understand why we shouldn't pay Planning Board and Board of Adjustment people, even though people thought it was inappropriate," she said. "But you think it's not appropriate to pay an attorney that was defending people on a lawsuit that was not our fault. We had to defend the people that work for this township, against our will, because somebody else, who happened to be the mayor, brought a lawsuit that was probably the most frivolous lawsuit I've ever seen in my life. You did not say anything about it until now, and now you are not voting for it. I think it's unconscionable."

"Everybody is entitled to their dissenting opinion," Toth said.

"You are, and I'm just saying my opinion, Councilman Toth," Scaturro said. "You accepted the defense, but you are not accepting the bill, and I think that's unconscionable."

"And you're entitled to your opinion," Toth replied.

Russell said Carbone should have notified the township sooner, when the original $17,500 ceiling on legal fees was reached. Carbone was hired to represent council members in the suit.

"What I don't like is that at the very end of this we are getting a bill that much higher than we even authorized to begin with," Russell said. "He should have said something to this council and to us to tell us this needs to be amended, that this was going to be higher. He should have sent that earlier. And that's my objection."

That prompted another angry response from Scaturro.

"I just think that everybody is hypocritical," Scaturro said. "You did not say anything while the defense was going on that you thought they should stop it, but now you're being all righteous, that you think we shouldn't pay the bill, even though you were defended in that suit. That's incredible."

Council President Stephen C. Acropolis said that "nobody" wanted to pay for the legal costs associated with the suit.

"Where was the outrage when the suit was filed?" he asked Russell. "Where was the outrage, Councilwoman Russell? The only outrage I see is that, boy, we don't want to pay a bill for something that didn't work."

Both Acropolis and Matthews also blasted Mayor Dan Kelly for not attending the council meeting. Kelly was at the opening night of Summerfest to represent the township. Summerfest was originally scheduled to kick off on July 3, when there was no Township Council meeting, but had to be rescheduled to July 10 because of bad weather.

"The gentleman, as Councilman Matthews said, that should be answering these questions is the mayor, the acting mayor, the mayor that is going to be here till November and maybe longer, is sitting at a concert, maybe with his grandkids or whoever else, while we are here doing the people's business," Acropolis said. "And that is really unfortunate. I think it shows the true priorities people have."

Normally the township attorney's firm - Gilmore and Monahan - would have represented the township in the lawsuit. But George R. Gilmore was also named in the suit as a defendant and could not do so, said Jean Cipriani, an attorney with Gilmore's firm who has attended most of the council meetings this year in Gilmore's place.

Not paying Carbone and Faase's bill could mean going to court again, Cipriani said.

"They did provide services," she said. "They could probably sue, since you allowed them to go to court and take actions and conferred with them. They certainly would have some claims. There would be numerous issues."

"Legal fees aren't always bad," she added, to the amusement of some audience members.

Council members voted unanimously in April to increase the contract for the law firm of Florio Perrucci Steinhardt & Fader from $17,500 to $50,000. The firm was hired to represent Township Clerk Virginia A. Lampman, Administrator Scott M. Pezarras and several other township employees. Pezarras later declined to be represented by legal counsel.

The sole issue in Kelly's lawsuit was whether Lampman - who was appointed acting mayor by former Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli on Dec. 6 - had the legal right to make professional appointments at the New Year's Day organization meeting.

The GOP-controlled council tapped Kelly to serve as acting mayor on Jan. 4, three days after Lampman made the appointments. Kelly said the night he was appointed that he felt the professional appointments should have been his to make. He and his lawyers contended that the appointments process violated the state Municipal Vacancy Law and that Lampman's rights as acting mayor ceased on Dec. 8, when Scarpelli's resignation became effective.

But Superior Court Judge Frank A. Buczynski Jr. ruled on June 15 that Lampman's appointments during her brief time as acting mayor were valid. Buczynski said that Scarpelli's resignation was immediately effective on Dec. 6 and that he permanently forfeited his office on Jan. 8, when he pleaded guilty to corruption charges in federal court in Newark.

Scarpelli is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 7.