Paterson vendor sues Sayegh administration for non-payment
By Jayed Rahman
Published: December 23, 2020
A vendor has filed a lawsuit against mayor Andre Sayegh’s administration for non-payment last week.
Morristown-based Appraisal Systems claims the city has failed to pay $118,406 for work performed such as appraisals, assessment research, and other appraisal-related work tied to tax court cases.
Sayegh administration hasn’t paid for work the company performed a year ago. Unpaid invoices go back to February, court records show.
“The Defendant, City of Paterson, has refused to pay the Plaintiff the amount of said invoices,” states the lawsuit filed on December 14. “Despite Plaintiff’s efforts on the Defendant’s behalf, the Defendant has still not paid the aforementioned amount due to the Plaintiff as of this date.”
Sayegh did not respond to a message for comment for this story.
On December 15, the City Council had before it a measure to pay $64,250 to Appraisal Systems, but that measure was pulled from the agenda.
The Sayegh administration presented the measure to the council to correct a violation of Local Public Contracts Law. Public procurement law requires at least two competitive price quotes for professional services. The Sayegh administration did not obtain two competitive quotes.
“The services were obtained from Appraisal Systems, Inc., through a ‘non-fair and open’ process without competitive bidding,” states the measure.
Some council members and residents have found fault with Appraisal Systems’ annual reassessments of properties. It had a four-year contract for annual assessments that ended this year. Some residents, mostly new home buyers in Paterson, have complained about big increases in their property assessments that followed their purchase, resulting in higher property tax bills.
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