"MONEY FOR NOTHING"
I've been spending a lot of time thinking about lawyers, attorneys, mouthpieces, suitsharks what ever you call them. No matter what you may think there good to have around for a multitude of reasons.
Here in Painesville we have at least two Mr. Gurley Esq. Mr. Lyons Esq. plus I understand another one in the city administration. With all this legal talent already on the city payroll will someone please explain to me why the city needs a $300.00 per hr. attorney from Buckingham, Dolittle & Burroughs to settle a dispute between a city employee and the administration?
I have never heard it mentioned at a council meeting where the money comes from to pay this outside law firm. Is there a "slush" fund? An award winning accounting department should have a record on how much and by where the money comes to pay these bills. Who, What, and Why? My guess is the money comes out of the three utility funds, unless someone comes up with a better place I will assume I'm right.
Have been getting a lot of well, mostly civil inquires about where's JT. is. I checked out his site and its not had much activity lately either. JT. might have said the "H--- with all of you", I only hope he is in good health. I miss the remarks, well sometimes.
Kathy Sak blog. is hilarious, about the story on college party's, funny slant.
Attended a zoning meeting the other night. Even if you don't agree with some of the decisions you must give people on that board a lot of credit for trying to do the right thing. A lady had lost a variance due to the house being uninhabited for a certain period of time. The city used water records as proof that no water had been used at that address over a period of time. The owner said although she didn't wash clothes there she did use the toilet, and moped the floor almost daily. She could not give a reason for the water not reading on the meter. In the public session Asst. Manager Doug Lewis asked if there were anything else. I asked if that meter could somehow be moved from that address to mine.
Stay tuned I believe March will be a very interesting for Painesville.
posted by terminator1 @ 3:25 PM
20 Comments
20 Comments:
Wonder if we could ask for, and get, an honest read-out of every outide attorney hired in the last several (or so) years, how much we paid them and for what. Would probably make for interesting reading.
Must be SOME slush fund.
PAST FINANCE COMMITTEE. rita mcmahon, city manager, andrew unetic, finance director, abby delamotte, chairperson, paul hack, and robert fountain. should have all the answers to all the expenses for the city of painesville. check for past minutes of the meetings. the new finance committeee is yet to be determined. city employee
Latest on AMP
...There’s still no word on the discussed conversion of AMP’s coal-fired plant, which was dropped in November, into a natural gas-fired power plant on the Letart Falls site. It’s been reported AMP had nearly $200 million invested in developing the Letart Falls site before the coal-fired plant’s price tag skyrocketed in excess of $3 billion, causing AMP’s member communities to cancel the project.
Though the Letart Falls site has permitting in place and site work completed, there is no natural gas transmission line in the area.
article found here:
http://www.mydailysentinel.com/view/full_story/6403021/article-Bridge-contractor-working-with-AMP?
(very end of article)
Frequently I read comments here or hear people in the city mention the apathy of residents because they don't attend council meetings. Well, I was thinking today, Dinallo didn't attend council meetings until she was well into her race for at large. Fodor never attended a meeting until he was paid to be there. Now that Abby isn't on council, I may be wrong, but on tv I don't see her attending now that she isn't being paid to be there. And Fountain is paid but still isn't there most of the time. Just thinking.
Well I only hope you can muster up some proof or there might be more then a policeman at your door. Where's your proof? How do you even know if the do business with this firm?
The law firm might have been used in union negotiations and that is might be the reason for there presence.
CITY OF PAINESVILLE, OHIO
COMPREHENSIVE ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED
DECEMBER 31, 2008
B. Litigation
There are several lawsuits pending in which the City is involved. The City's management
believes that the ultimate outcome of these matters will not significantly impact the City's
financial position or operations.
http://www.painesville.com/vertical/Sites/%7B66FDE066-2B9A-43E2-8DFC-2129003D50A7%7D/uploads/%7B0C328A69-61A7-42B5-8629-28AC28201BBF%7D.PDF
page 109
The exact same wording is found in the reports of 2005, 2006, & 2007
Term, ther reason for outside fim for the lawsuit for city employer is becasue you cannot use another city employee to represent the city it would be conflict of interest and the person sueing would say it's an upfair advantage ect. Further if you needed one of those attorneys to testify regarding the lawsuit again conflict of interest. Its the legal system here not city wasting money.
Dear 9:31 pm,
Very valid observations. Even here on the blog, the same few folks in a city of 17,000 are the ones who comment over and over. In a town of 17,000 there are only a handful seem really puzzled and question the way this administration has done business.
Any suggestions on how to light a fire under this community.
Got an invite to attend the new "green space" meetings and have no stomach to do so. Would rather waste my time picking up dog crap. I see the fence going up around Harvey High School and realize how clueless this town is.
You whine you get inspectors. We voted these clowns back into office. We get what we deserve.
party on..........
hey Term why not put a counter on the blog to see how many hits you are getting.
to 6:15...you are probably right about the conflict of interest point regarding using a city attorney for a city employee issue...but what about the OTHER things this outside firm has handled...like retaining the hiospital, etc? And being VERY well-paid for it I might add. Please don't tell me that a local attorney or attorney employed by the city couldn't handle that job at a fraction of the cost, and in addition have a better understanding of the issues and players than outside counsel would. And has anyone looked at BB and D's site....no mention of Painesville as a customer even though we probably rate as a good one considering how much money we've spent with them. And check out the archives for July/August of 2006 to see who got an award from them....one would think that this would have been a big deal here...a city leader receiving a prestigious award from a prominant law firm. Does anyone remember that ever being broadcast in a public forum...?
Someone should explore the relationship between the present city manager and the law firm. This is a firm with which the city has spent close to a million dollars with. Yet for some reason we don't mention them?
How are the payments to this firm transfered, and you can bet it will never give a reason only "for services provided" Let anyone else try that.
As far as wakeing up residents? Waiy until the bills come due.
5:25 says "Well I only hope you can muster up some proof or there might be more then a policeman at your door."
What exactly do you mean by that, 5:25?
I HOPE THE NEW COUNCIL get's rid of the sanctuary city STATUS by removing the ILLEGAL ALIEN'S then and only then we can have our city BACK. SUPPORT THE LOCAL GRASSROOT MEETING'S AND ATTEND OUR CITY COUNCIL MEETING'S a very very concerned tax payer .
2:21 I believe 5:25 meant I will be receiving a law suit, for false allegations, some of you must realize by now I might have proof in my hands to make that statement.
6:15 Do you really consider Mr. Gurley, and Mr. Lyons as employees of the city? Why hire them if that can't represent the city in these cases?
Did anyone see "60 Minutes" tonight (2/21/10)? A company called BloomEnergy has an invention called The Bloom Box. It's what they are calling a fuel cell, and it looks like a phenomenal invention. eBay headquarters and several other huge companies bought the system and are doing experimental runs with it. I think eBay said it saved them hundreds of thousands of dollars so far.
Apparantly the official debut of the product is in a couple of days. They said that a unit for a house should be around 3,000.00. They also said that power companies can buy the system and use it to power their customers. The eBay company also has many, many solar panels that they get part of their energy from, but they said that the fuel cell technology was much better than the solar system that they had.
I'll be watching this company's Web site in a couple of days for more details. This could be something that Painesville needs to check out.
What seems to be driving all these technology gains are coming government regulations, along with energy producer and suppliers higher costs to the public.
I see now First Energy does no longer give a discount for an all electric home. Does anyone remember when Painesville Power had this program? Did they ever have one?
Term, if they are paid by the city then they are considered an employee of the city. Again regarding the city employee lauwsuit Mr. Gurley could use information the he is privy to against another employee and thats exactly what the other attorney would say. The city would then have another lawsuit on their hands. Mr. Gurley or Mr. Lyon may not have backround in what the city is being sued for therefore you look for outside help ect. I'm not saying that the current system does not suck, but its the current system and not the city wasting money. I dont like payig hundrend an hour for an attorney, however if the outcome is not in our favore could you imagine what it would cost the city? Sometimes you need to consider that. Like sometime even though you maybe right its better to settle and not waste the legal fees its cheaper. That is our legal system. Calling them out is really a waste of time here.
5:15 You just might be missing the point. I want to know where the money comes from to pay for these legal fees? If Terms right why would they come out of the utility funds? Under who's control?
Mary Poppins
just a thought, seeing that we have 2 lawyers and a secretary, on the cities dime, why not eliminate these positions and use that monies to help the residents at cobblestone apts. since we ahve an outside law firm that we use all the time, that we are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on.utilize them when needed for our city.
9:05am, that is exactly what I was going to suggest. Why do we pay these people and remember with Gurley we are paying 100% of his medical plan. Let's get rid of them and strictly use outside law firms which seems to be what we do mostly anyways, while still paying Gurley his hefty heff and benefits.
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