Charleroi Council withholds payment to outside law firm
CHARLEROI – Borough council is questioning a second legal bill related to the sale of the Authority for the Borough of Borough Council (ABC).
Council excluded payment of a $34,486 invoice from Obermayer, Rebmann, Maxwell & Hippel when it unanimously voted to pay borough bills at last Wednesday’s meeting. Council President Frank Paterra was not at the meeting.
“I would like that withheld until we see itemization of that,” said Councilwoman Nancy Ellis.
At solicitor Sean Logue’s recommendation, council hired the law firm in March to handle the authority sale. However, an agreement was reached between council and ABC that did not involve the firm, and council terminated its services on June 28. The agreement involved ABC purchasing the sanitary sewage collection system, sewer lines and all sewer property for $3.75 million.
“We did the work ourselves,” Paterra said at the time. “We shouldn’t even have gone down that road. They didn’t do a good job; they just milked our little community of money we need to spend for our people and our community.”
At the June 14 meeting, council voted to pay the firm $53,605. If the second bill is paid, the firm would receive more than $87,000 from the borough.
Resident Adele Hopkins said if the borough was billed after June 28, the public has a right to know.
“We were all at that meeting where it was discussed that he was fired,” she said referring to Thomas Wyatt, the firm’s representative in the matter. “We need to see the invoice for this extra money, this extra $34,000, and see if any of it was charged after June 28.”
Logue said he asked the law firm for a copy of its files and as of Monday had not received one.