"City legal feesIt is a disgrace that the Salisbury City Council will need a total of $240,000 to cover its legal expenses for the current fiscal year. If Councilwomen Terry Cohen and Debbie Campbell would stop nitpicking every issue to death, maybe council would be able to resolve many of the issues that remain in limbo."
The legal fees this fiscal year are in line with what's been needed for at least the last seven years.
Current legal billing shows that since the city attorney was replaced, the bills have gone down, not up. Campbell and Cohen's "nitpicking" has saved the city a big bunch of money, like hundreds of thousands already. As for those issues that "remain in limbo", the writer would be hard-pressed to name them and explain where the holdup is on each one. The disgrace here is that of the ignorance of this Grapevine contributor, who speaks before she knows what she's talking about. Get educated.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
The City's legal fees have been excessive for years now so not being out of line for the past 7 or so years is meaningless. Better comparison -- what other towns of the same size in Maryland pay.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget that there are many other attorneys that feed off the Salisbury trough -- often their fees are from "enterprise funds" not the general expense budget. Altogether, this year (with the huge fees for the sewage plant suit) the City's legal fees will probably exceed ONE MILLION DOLLARS.
The Daily Times always allows lies to surface in their publication when it involves a smack down of Cohen Campbell and Spies.
ReplyDeleteThat's why they took away anon comments-they hate the truth.
And no one wants to comment using their facebook because of the unstable people lurking in the shadows.
In case you don't know --
ReplyDeletethere is now a surplus of lawyers in the US that is increasing each year. Many businesses are getting big reductions in the fees charged by even blue-chip Wall Street firms -- the Dewey firm is going down the tubes due to lack of fees.
Why doesn't the City negotiate for a reduced rate?
Joe:
ReplyDeleteThere's a class action suit by recent law school grads against the schools for false information about employment and salary that they would get but can't find. Why doesn't the City hire one of them.
Better to look at the legal fees a year from now to see if the new city attorney costs less than the previous one.
ReplyDeleteHow do you know it's a she?
ReplyDeleteEveryone knows that Barrie and the Dream Team gave the former City Attorney a sweetheart deal, so why is it good that the fees have not dropped since then while everyone else is making less?
ReplyDeleteNo man uses the word "disgrace".
ReplyDelete"Everyone knows that Barrie and the Dream Team gave the former City Attorney a sweetheart deal, so why is it good that the fees have not dropped since then while everyone else is making less?"
ReplyDeleteFor all the junk that Barrie left behind it's going to cost the city millions. Wilber made the most of it while he was city attorney. The dust will settle and expenses will probably go down over time.
This has to be Lynn Cathcart. She says this same thing every time she gets up to speak and is quoted in the paper.
ReplyDeleteAs for the cost, what did people expect? Wilber was still attorney for half the year and had to stay on to close up his work. Let's see the bills, too. How much is due to Ireton's incompetence and hissy fits?
Anytime I see the Daily Times bashing Campbell, Cohen or Spies, I roll my eyes and say, "There you go again."