Fritz Byers legal bill for City to exceed $50,000
If you read the Blade today, Collins says bills in Toledo bias suit should go to mayor; after reading this part:
“Originally, when this was presented, it was supposed to be under $10,000, so the mayor was allowed to do this,” Councilman D. Michael Collins said. “Council has the authority now to decide on the legal fees, but also, if there is a compensatory award, it is up to council whether or not to accept this.”
The mayor hired Toledo attorney Fritz Byers to represent him and the city against Perlean Griffin, former director of Affirmative Action/Contract Compliance; Dwayne Morehead, former co-executive director of the youth commission, and Gary Daugherty, a former manager of environmental services.
You might want to flash back to when the attorney hiring was made public, City hires counsel for bias case:
The city recently acquired the services of attorneys Fritz Byers and Samuel Kaplan – and will pay their legal fees with taxpayer dollars – for defense against the commission’s finding of “probable cause” that Mayor Carty Finkbeiner’s administration engaged in an “unlawful discriminatory practice” when it fired or laid off those three employees last year.
Mr. Byers, former general counsel for Block Communications Inc., The Blade’s parent company, will act as lead counsel for the city and be paid $225 per hour. Mr. Kaplan will be paid $135 per hour.
The mayor does not need Toledo City Council’s approval for expenditures of less than $10,000.
But if the legal fees in this matter exceed that amount, council would need to sign off on a separate agreement among the city, Mr. Byers, and Mr. Kaplan.
Toledo City Council President Mark Sobczak and Councilman Frank Szollosi both said that they weren’t sure if council would grant approval to pay for outside legal counsel in this instance.
Mr. Sobczak said Mr. Finkbeiner was acting within his rights to spend $9,999 in legal fees but added: “He’s the one who got us into this, so he’s the one who has to get us out of it.”
In light of the city’s highly publicized budget woes, Mr. Szollosi wants to know where the money is going to come from to pay Mr. Byers and Mr. Kaplan.
“This is money that could go toward putting another policeman on the streets,” Mr. Szollosi said.
It sets the stage for a scenario that could be interesting. What happens if Council does not approve the legal fees? What about the legal fees originally anticipated by Kaplan? Were those under the $10,000 mark or will those also be coming? Why is the City in settlement talks if the Mayor is truly not guilty as he has claimed? The Mayor stated that the claim being made was “Totally, completely made-up falsehood,” .
There, now we can start over and hopefully anyone really interested in the actual topic posted? Can comment.
December 4th, 2008 at 8:47 amDid these people actually believe that the fees would be under $10,000, after all was said and done?
December 4th, 2008 at 3:25 pm