The city’s governing body allocated additional funds and extended 11 legal contracts on Tuesday evening.
In total the city appropriated $706,000 — $200,000 was shifted from firms that did not expend their last year’s appropriations to those that went over — to the 11 law firms.
The following 5 firm went over their appropriations from last year and have been approved additional funds to continue their legal work for the city:
- Dwyer, Connell and Lisbona, $100,000
- Lite DePalma Greenberg, $100,000
- Ruderman and Glickman, $84,000
- Sciro and Marotta, 50,000
- Buglione, Hutton and DeYoe, 42,000.
The city also extended its contract with 11 law firms for 90 days so as to award new legal contracts in the next fiscal year. The 11 firms whose contracts were extended are as follows:
- Dwyer, Connell and Lisbona, 35,000
- Gilmore and Monahan, $35,000
- Lite DePalma Greenberg, $35,000
- Sciro and Marotta, $30,000
- Inglesino, Webster, Wyciskala & Taylor, $30,000
- Buglione, Hutton and DeYoe, $30,000
- Adams Gutierrez and Lattiboudere, $30,000
- Ruderman and Glickman, $30,000
- Scarinci Hollenbeck, $25,000
- Saponaro and Sitzler, $25,000
- Florio and Kenny, $25,000.
The firms are being paid $125 per hour for state court matters and $135 per hour for federal court matters, according to city records. The law firms handle workers’ compensation, labor cases, tax appeals, and serve as conflict counsel. Others also handle cases in federal and state courts.
Council members had put off the extension of the contracts after councilman Kenneth Morris wanted to speak to representatives of the firms to gauge where the city stands with each of its many cases in court.
Law director Domenick Stampone gave the council a status update on the cases during a special meeting on Tuesday evening which included a closed door session. After the status updated, the council approved the extensions and additional funding for the law firm.
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