New Haven Independent

She was exasperated because the 30-members of the Representative Town Meeting, whose majority are Democrats, had yet to formally vote on a set of Ed Marcus’s legal bills. The bills totaled $141,920 and the check had been cut last June.

So what’s the problem? Well, Marcus may have received his money, but Finch (and presumably Morris) approved cutting the check before the town’s Board of Finance and RTM approved it, a violation of section 11 of the Town Charter.

Now Mrs. Morris likes to say that the Board of Finance approved the bill and the RTM held it up. But what actually happened was the Board of Finance approved the bill only after learning about the overage at their July 31st meeting and only after the check had been cut. The Board was not happy. Nor were members of the RTM. They all could have rolled over, played dead, and said, not much we can do about it; after all, the check was cut.

But they did not do that. The RTM’s Administrative Services Committee, which must first approve the bill, discussed it and in a bi-partisan unanimous vote rejected it, sending it back to the RTM. The chair, Gail Chapman, said “this is about process and accountability.” With that, a discussion was launched. And from it came change.

What Mrs. Morris doesn’t seem to get is that the majority of RTM members are not distracted or stupid or indifferent or incapable of grasping the situation. Some have far greater familiarity with town government than she does. They know all about end-of- year money transfers. They know the process may take two to three months because so many approvals are required. They know that sometimes the bill is paid and they vote later. They know that in the past they have looked the other way.

But that was then and this is now, and what’s missing from the equation in 2006 is trust. That is what Mrs. Morris does not understand. Without trust, without confidence in this Administration, many on the RTM, including Democrats, would not give to Cheryl Morris what they willingly gave as a matter of course to John Opie, a Republican and “Unk” DaRos, a Democrat.

Rep. Frank Twohill, who is an attorney, summarized the fiscal transaction at the RTM meeting on October 11.
When Former First Selectman John Opie left office in November, 2005, “there was $231,000 left in the legal line item. Add to it the $141,920 and the result is that the Marcus Law Firm has spent $373,000 in legal fees in only seven months, some $50,000 a month or $12,000 a week,” he said.

When she was elected Mrs. Morris said the Marcus Law Firm would “reduce the costs of legal expenses for the town.” In Opie’s administration, Robin Sandler served as a general full-time attorney at a yearly cost of $75,000. There were other outside law firms who also worked for the town but the bottom line is that in 2005 there was $231,000 left unspent.

Twohill said legal costs were too high. He suggested Mrs. Morris hire another law firm, or if she insists on keeping Marcus, as she has, then she should renegotiate his contract to work for an annual fee or for a reduced hourly fee.

Mrs. Morris hired Marcus, a former State Democratic Chairman whom she credits with helping win her election, on an hourly rather than an annual basis. This means the New Haven firm receives $150.00 an hour for general legal advice and attending meetings and $185.00 an hour for litigation. In fact, on the day she was sworn in, Nov. 22, 2005, Morris called a special Board of Selectmen’s meeting at 6 p.m. to appoint Marcus as town counsel. According to the bill the Marcus Law Firm submitted to the town, Marcus went straight to work that night, attending an RTM meeting for two hours and writing five letters for a total billing of 3.5 hours of legal time or $525.00.

“My constituents have demanded that I vote no,” Twohill declared. As if on cue, RTM member Jan Doyle, a close ally of the Morris team, asked that Twohill not vote because in 2005 he received a $518 legal fee from the town. What that $518 had to do with a 2006 Marcus Law firm bill was not made clear. James Bruno, the RTM moderator, thought Doyle made a good point and he asked the parliamentarian, Nicholas Lavorato, for his thoughts. Lavorato, who came without his copy of Robert’s “Rules of Order,” spoke off the top of his head and the top said Twohill had a conflict of interest and he should not vote.

Twohill protested, but left. The next day he checked the various editions of Roberts “Rules of Order” and could find nothing concerning conflicts of interest.

A review of the bills shows that the Marcus Law Firm, especially the two partners, Ed and Shelley, have a far greater involvement in the daily activities of Town Hall than was the case with attorneys in prior administrations. Weekly meetings with Mrs. Morris sometimes last all day and were instituted almost immediately after she took office. In the evening, the firm’s attorneys often attend Commission and board meetings, even committee meetings. These are in addition to the RTM and the Board of Selectmen meetings, which town attorneys traditionally attend.

In the end, something positive may have grown out of this four month odyssey. At the RTM meeting, Finch, Shelley Marcus and Morris said changes would be made to keep the RTM in the loop. Shelley Marcus said the firm would now meet monthly, keep a close eye on the costs and deliver early warnings to the RTM. Finch said department heads will now meet with their “respective RTM committee in January to provide mid-year overview of their current budget.”

John Opie, who understood the bill’s after-the-fact problem, said “It’s a little like trying to get the toothpaste back in the tube.” He offered no opinion on whether or not to reject the bill.

But Moshe Gai, an administration critic, did, of course. He spoke at length on the impact of Marcus’s legal advice on the town and asked the RTM to reject the bills, not to rubber stamp them. “What is happening in this town is most upsetting to people in this town and I ask you guys today to vote your moral compass. Send a message to this administration,” he declared.

Rep. Sandra Reiners took issue with Gai’s opinion, saying she did not want the vote to be judged against Gai’s moral compass. “I think it would be highly inaccurate to say that if I vote for, then I have no moral compass and if others vote against, then they do have a moral compass. Many of us see these issues as founded in fact, founded in process, founded in precedent and which have realistic solutions. I for one will not be characterized as having no moral compass.” She sat down to a round of applause.

Rep. Lonnie Reed was the final speaker and her sentiments reflected the ongoing, underlying tensions within the Branford Democratic Party that Morris ostensibly heads. “I want to say the RTM has been standing up, again and again and again. We have an ad hoc committee looking into behavior we find questionable, to say the least,” she said of the committee’s inquiry into Ed Marcus’s role in Granite-gate.
We have sent the quarry issue to the administrative services committee. We meet privately to talk as RTM members about issues that are very important to us. We agree to cross the aisle to form coalitions to fight for the people of Branford.

“So I am appalled that it could be laid out there in TV land for anyone to think that what we are doing here is being a rubber stamp. If we were a rubber stamp we would have been out of here by 8:30 p.m. We are fighting these issues tooth and nail and what you are seeing out in public is only a part of it. I want to applaud Rep. Reiners for not making this (vote) a litmus test for who we are…”

The RTM approved the Marcus legal bills by a vote of 15- 7, with one removal (Twohill), one abstention, and two Republicans joining the Democrats.

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