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Re: DeCotiis charging more at the MUA than previous law firm
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New $350K Jersey City agency contract for Fulop-aligned law firmBy JERSEY CITY — The Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority has renewed its contract with a politically connected law firm and retroactively boosted its previous contract by $100,000 for "unanticipated'' legal matters, documents show. Both actions were approved at the MUA's August meeting, where commissioners unanimously approved a 2015-16 contract with law firm DeCotiis, Fitzpatrick & Cole for $350,000 and agreed to allow DeCotiis to exceed its 2014-15 contract by $100,000, for a total of $450,000. That move has one prominent critic: John Thieroff, who managed Mayor Steve Fulop's 2013 campaign and who called the MUA's decision to allow DeCotiis to exceed the cap imposed on its 2014-15 contract "politics as usual." The firm has ties to Fulop. Read more: http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... lop-aligned_law_firm.html
Posted on: 2015/10/6 4:23
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Re: DeCotiis charging more at the MUA than previous law firm
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Donna, I have indeed been focusing on the MUA, but you should see something in our paper about the JCRA very soon.
Posted on: 2014/12/10 4:30
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Re: DeCotiis charging more at the MUA than previous law firm
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thanks Terrence, you seemed to focus on the MUA and I understand that, but when you look at autonomous agencies like the JCRA spending almost 66% of their payroll expenses- 912,000 based on the 2012 budget on line- on legal expenses, you really need to just what is happening. All the autonomous agencies have boards, whose job it is to look at these run away legal bills and ask a few questions. Clearly, with the exception of John T at the MUA, this didn't happen.
Posted on: 2014/12/9 20:52
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Re: DeCotiis charging more at the MUA than previous law firm
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Can we expect Whizzy and Whiney to convene an investigation? Oh, they better check out the Newark Watershed and Booker first. We'll have to wait, I guess, for them to finish checking out a traffic jam first.
Posted on: 2014/12/9 18:27
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Re: DeCotiis charging more at the MUA than previous law firm
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Just a few points for clarification:
"This is a non-bidding contract..." The resolution awarding DeCotiis the contract last year indicates the MUA publicly issued a request for qualifications for this contract. "It sometimes seems that much of the investigative reporting around here is 'I'll make an OPRA request for as many records as possible, and if I don't understand everything in it I'll print an article with insinuations.'" I didn't advertise this as an investigative piece. It's a standard newspaper story about bills taxpayers pay for. "...this is just someone pulling #s out of the air making an insinuation." Not really out of the air -- I OPRA'd legal bills for the law firm's first year representing the MUA. I didn't pick an arbitrary time period.
Posted on: 2014/12/9 17:43
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Quote:
Amen
Posted on: 2014/12/9 17:26
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That is part of the debate, but so is the wasteful spending on political friends. The hypocrisy is stunning. If Healy was still mayor you would be railing against the wasteful spending on law firms who are political friends of the mayor. The surplus should be poured back into the failing infrastructure. If not now, WHEN will it be rebuilt. That said, the out pouring of tax payer funds to firms like DeCotiis is just plain wrong. It was wrong when Healy did it and its equally wrong when Steven does it. Stop the mindless spin on these stories.
Posted on: 2014/12/9 16:19
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There may be something here, but until all the information is available, this is just someone pulling #s out of the air making an insinuation.
The MUA now has a surplus, and the debate is over whether that surplus should go to lowering taxes, or lowering rates. If that's a scandal, then I wish we had more of them.
Posted on: 2014/12/9 15:16
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Re: DeCotiis charging more at the MUA than previous law firm
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There is no way to sugar coat this if you are a Fulop supporter. When you do, you are doing a disservice to you and the city at large. As bad as the DeCotiis firm is as a billing machine, they operate in concert with the the Amoroso firm, they are the attorneys for the JCRA. What people see to be missing in the article is Amoroso billed the JCRA over $600,000 last year!! The JCRA was represented by Jack Curley, for years. He is a local attorney with a statewide reputations for professionalism and his in depth knowledge of redevelopment law. They bounced Curley for the Hackensack based Amoroso firm. Henry Amoroso was the last CEO of the bankrupt St. Vincent's. This from the Huffington Post:
"The now-defunct St. Vincent's Hospital was destroyed by mismanagement as it teetered at the edge of bankruptcy_ including a $278,000 golf outing and more than $100 million in unspecified spending for just one year, according to a lawsuit filed Monday." hospital.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08 ... spital-wast_n_683696.html
Posted on: 2014/12/9 14:48
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Re: DeCotiis charging more at the MUA than previous law firm
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Kissing up as usual, Joshua. This is a non-bidding contract that escalated in price. It is part of the reason we pay big bucks in water bills. And the rates under this administration will continue to rise, Fulop needs to support his friends. Do anyone here remember pay to play and how Fulop attacked Healy on this subject?
Posted on: 2014/12/9 3:35
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Re: DeCotiis charging more at the MUA than previous law firm
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Without knowing more about the work being done, I can't say if comparing the last year of the Healy admin with the 1st year of the Fulop admin is an apples to apples comparison.
It sometimes seems that much of the investigative reporting around here is "I'll make an OPRA request for as many records as possible, and if I don't understand everything in it I'll print an article with insinuations."
Posted on: 2014/12/9 3:11
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Thank God, McDonald wrote this article, if I said the same thing here, I would be attacked as anti-Fulop. Thanks Terrance.
Posted on: 2014/12/8 23:45
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It's alluded to a bit in the article, but wasn't there a big reorganization of the MUA this year? I would imagine that has at least something to do with the increased costs.
Posted on: 2014/12/8 17:25
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You are probably right on both counts and it must be a slow news day. I'm still pissed off about it. Oh well, only taxpayers' money, so who cares, right?
Posted on: 2014/12/8 17:24
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I don't think the MUA falls under this law as they aren't the government per-say but an autonomous agency. The spirit of the law is being broken though in my mind in awarding a no-bid contract for this amount. That said is it possible that the law firm did more work this year and that is the reason for the increase in fees, rather then being just more expensive?
Posted on: 2014/12/8 17:19
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Re: DeCotiis charging more at the MUA than previous law firm
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Was this also a no-bid contract like the city had with Werner Lesniak? Because if it is, the administration is once again breaking the law (Healy did the same thing). Feast your eyes on Jersey City Municipal Code sec. 3-51(E): Awarding of contracts for professional and extraordinary unspecifiable services. (1) Subject to Subsection E(2), before submitting any proposed contract for professional or extraordinary unspecifiable services to the Council for approval, a Department Director shall solicit quotations, whenever practicable, for any contract of $7,500 or more. If a Department Director recommends that the contract be awarded on the basis of other than the lowest quotation received or considers it impracticable to solicit quotations, he or she shall file a statement of explanation of the reason or reasons why competitive quotations are considered impracticable. (2) There shall be exempted from the procedures established under Subsection E(1) any contract submitted by the Corporation Counsel for the appointment of special counsel to represent any officers or employees of the city in any legal proceeding or to represent the Jersey City Medical Center or its agents, servants and employees. Last I checked, $ 655,673 is more than $ 7500. Never mind that the firm is not a Jersey City firm employing Jersey City people, which would be nice but is not required, but the city can't even bother to put these legal services out for a competitive bid when it is required to do so, it is downright criminal.
Posted on: 2014/12/8 17:09
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DeCotiis charging more at the MUA than previous law firm
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Law firm for Jersey City agency charged nearly 70% more in its first year than previous legal counsel
By Terrence T. McDonald | The Jersey Journal JERSEY CITY ? In its first year providing legal services to the Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority, politically connected law firm DeCotiis, Fitzpatrick & Cole charged taxpayers nearly 70 percent more than the amount billed during the previous year by the agency's prior legal counsel. DeCotiis, which was appointed the autonomous MUA's outside law firm one month after Steve Fulop became mayor last year, billed the MUA $655,673 in its first year representing the agency, according to documents reviewed by The Jersey Journal. Genova Burns Giantomasi Webster, the MUA's prior outside legal counsel, billed taxpayers $386,192 in its final year representing the agency, the records show. Like DeCotiis, Genova Burns is among the most powerful law firms in the state. READ MORE
Posted on: 2014/12/8 16:57
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