Lawrence's
legal bills top $1m
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By
Keith Eddingskeddings@eagletribune.com
LAWRENCE
— The bill for hiring outside law firms to defend the city against workplace
grievances and allegations of police brutality and for paying judgments against
police this year surpassed $1 million with the City Council's recent vote to
pay the firms another $276,955.
The
appropriation will bring total spending on outside counsel this year to
$726,955, an amount that has climbed as the city's legal staff dwindled to a
single lawyer and a secretary.
In
addition, the city has spent $420,000 so far this year to pay brutality
judgments against police for cases handled by the outside firms, leaving just
$75,000 in the budget for outstanding claims against the police.
Four
claims are pending, including a civil suit filed by a woman repeatedly raped by
an on-duty cop in a parked car outside police headquarters on the night of
Sept. 28, 2008. The cop, Kevin Sledge, was sentenced to up to 12 years in
prison after his conviction in October. The woman, a Haverhill resident,
alleges the city failed to properly supervise Sledge.
Spending
for other outside firms hired to sue the contractors who built the high school
and the Guilmette School also has surpassed $1 million, although precise
numbers were not available Friday. Construction at the new high school in 2006
suffered repeated overruns and delays, and much of the interior of the
Guilmette School had to be demolished and rebuilt to get at a mold infestation
— the second at the school — that the city said was caused by poor construction
techniques.
The
biggest chunk of the $276,955 the City Council approved spending for outside
law firms will go to Morgan, Brown & Joy, a Boston firm that already has
received $154,183 to represent the city on contract negotiations, allegations
of illegal workplace practices and other labor issues. The issues include a
14-count complaint police filed with the state Division of Labor Relations last
year after Lantigua said the city would no longer pay to hire outside firms to
defend cops who are sued.
The
next biggest check — for $49,794 — is going to lawyer William DiAdamo, who is
defending the city against wrongful termination and harassment claims that two
former Personnel Department employees filed against the city and Lantigua,
Personnel Director Frank Bonet and Personnel secretary Lorenza Ortega, who is
Lantigua's girlfriend. The added payment will bring DiAdamo's total earnings
defending the city this year to $102,531.
The
City Council voted 8-1 to make the additional payments last week. Councilor
Marc Laplante dissented, noting that the Council cut $100,000 from the $550,000
Lantigua requested for outside legal help this year with the hope he would
spend the money to begin restaffing the law department.
"It
didn't make any sense to spend a lot of money to hire an outside firm for
something we could have done for a lot less money internally," Laplante
said, referring to the labor issues handled by Morgan, Brown & Joy, which
he described as a "Cadillac" firm because of its billing rates.
"I'm not saying we could do everything inside. I'm saying we could have
taken a chunk of the spending for outside counsel and brought that back into
City Hall."
That
process recently got underway when Lantigua gave City Attorney Charles Boddy
approval to hire two lawyers and a paralegal for the law department, where
staffing has shrunk from nine — including five lawyers — to two over the last
few years.
The
permission comes with a challenge: Boddy can offer annual salaries of just
$65,000 to $85,000 to the new lawyers.
"We
also have good fringe benefits," City Council Vice President Daniel Rivera
said about his hope for attracting talent at a modest salary. "Somebody
might want to live close. We've got to get what we can afford, let's not forget
that part."