Brockport's legal fees escalate

"We have a major artery that's been lacerated and continues to bleed," was how Village of Brockport Trustee Carrie Maziarz described the escalating legal fees the village is incurring.

At the reportedly contentious village board meeting on January 16, the issue of legal fees was raised.

"We're paying out, on average, $6,799 a month in legal fees," she said in a conversation following the January 17 village board meeting. The village budgeted $60,000 for legal fees and Maziarz said they stand at $54,396. "At the rate we're spending, we could be over budget on that line item by 100 percent."

Mayor Mort Wexler said he tries to keep the debt as low as possible.

"When you look at the total money spent on another department and look at the legal fees, it's about seven cents on every dollar spent on the police department budget," he said.

The village has been involved in litigation with a rental property owner for many years and is now spending money on legal fees because of issues with the police chief's contract which was voided by the board as being illegal. Contract negotiations between the police chief, Dan Varrenti, and the village have been on-going for several months. "We presented a counter proposal to the chief on December 16 and have yet to hear back from him," Wexler said. "The ball is in his court."

Wexler agreed that the legal fees will likely be over budget and could even double, but said, "We can't reduce the costs of the police department by wishing them to be lower," he said. "I'm sure our legal fees will go higher but the end idea is to reduce the cost of the police department budget."

In a faxed statement, Wexler said he found comments made by Trustees Maziarz and Wagenhauser to be disingenuous. "They are quick to give their diatribe when there is an over-run in a budgetary expenditure, but they develop lockjaw and become myopic when the police chief's former contract is being discussed," he wrote.

Neither Maziarz nor Wexler voted for the budget when it was presented last year and they both requested a higher figure in the legal budget line. "We didn't get the higher figure but we still have to live within the confines of the budget that was passed," Maziarz said. "We ask the department heads to toe the line on their budgets but we are just blatantly spending over one of our line items."

In addition to the legal fees it's incurring, the village is also being faced with a loss in assessed value of close to $40,000 with the closing of Kleen-Brite. "We're going to be over budget in legal fees and under budget in tax revenues," Maziarz said.

Trustee David Wagenhauser said part of the issue with legal fees is the board members don't know why or what the money is being spent on. "We don't get any memos, correspondence and there is no board discussion. The board is operating under a curtain of secrecy," he said. "The legal fees are just staggering."

Wagenhauser said the whole board may not be in agreement on all the issues but he said the whole board should be involved in the decision-making process. We get all of our info from the bills we are expected to authorize," he said. "Unilateral decisions are being made on a daily basis."

Everyone who ran in the recent election, Wagenhauser said, ran on the platform of wanting to keep costs down.

Wexler said he won't be elated if in the new budget process there has to be a tax increase but said the board is doing its best to work under the situations that have arisen.

"Coming into this administration, we didn't know what types of issues were going to come up and now we are dealing with them," he said. "In our attempt to eventually lower costs we are going to have to pay up front to get it resolved."

January 22, 2006