New Haven Independent

Panel OKs Marshal Reform

by Melissa Bailey | March 24, 2009 7:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

After a plea from “Uncle Billy” to leave state marshal fees alone, aldermen steamed ahead with a plan to reform a system of political patronage.

William J. Nolan (pictured) was among a small group of state marshals who showed up to defend their interests at a meeting of the aldermanic Legislation Committee Monday night at City Hall. By a unanimous vote, the panel approved a bill that aims to drive down the hefty fees that taxpayers have to pay when a marshal slaps them with a city foreclosure suit or serves them a tax warrant.

Marshals work as independent contractors to serve about 1,200 foreclosures, 1,400 personal property tax warrants and 100 letters for building and zoning code violations on behalf of the city each year.

A proposed Marshals Ordinance calls on the city to create a list of up to 15 marshals who are certified to take on city-related work. City work would be given only to marshals on that list.

To carry out the aldermen’s directive, Mike Fumiatti, the city purchasing agent, has drafted a new Request for Proposals. He aims to roll out the RFP shortly after the full Board of Aldermen approves the ordinance, which is set for a final vote on April 20.

Click here to read the proposed ordinance; Click here to read the draft RFP.

The ordinance and RFP were the result of a working group formed by Hill Alderman Jorge Perez, East Rock Alderman Roland Lemar, Aldermanic President Carl Goldfield, and Fumiatti. Click here for a past story on the group’s efforts.

Perez initially proposed reforming the process last year amid public outrage over state marshals’ role in city government. After the Independent reported that a state marshal had waived towing the car of a politically connected reverend, the city booted marshals from its aggressive towing program. Public pressure mounted amid reports that marshals, most of whom are politically connected, were getting rich off of a foreclosure crisis.

Squeezed Out?

Only a handful of marshals currently take on city-related work. Nolan isn’t one of them, but he told aldermen he had relevant experience to share. He argued against the proposed RFP process, which he said could squeeze out the little guy and leave the city with poorer service.

State law defines maximum fees for each task a marshal must perform: for example, a dollar per page for making photocopies and 40 cents for a signature. Most marshals charge the maximum allowed by state law. The city’s proposed RFP, based on one at the New Haven Housing Authority, aims to slash those fees by asking marshals to give their best price for each task.

To make it onto the municipal list, each marshal would have to meet the quote of the lowest bidder, explained Alderman Lemar, chair of the Legislation Committee.

Nolan told the committee that when the housing authority made its hiring process competitive, he got squeezed out of a job. The RFP created a “bidding war,” he said, that drove down the cost of serving a paper from $30 to only $8.

At $8 a pop, Nolan said he could no longer afford to take on the work, which he’d been doing for three years.

“I lost the account,” said Nolan, who’s been a marshal for 35 years.

“We all know we’ve made a good living. I have,” he said. For the service of process to be “done right, effective and timely,” he said, marshals need the flexibility to charge up to the state maximum fees.

“Yes, competition does drive down costs,” Nolan said. But he argued that when fees are forced too low, the work can become a lower priority for a marshal, who then may address more lucrative work first. Without providing specific evidence, he told aldermen that the housing authority is suffering from such degradation of service.

Alderman Perez countered by saying that if a marshal fails to serve a paper in a timely fashion, the city can file a grievance with the State Marshal Commission and can remove the marshal from the city’s sanctioned list. The proposed Marshal Ordinance sets guidelines for removal in the case of misconduct.

Nolan’s plea made an impression on Goldfield, the board president. Goldfield is not on the Legislation Committee, so he didn’t join in the 5-0 vote. In brief comments, he raised a couple of doubts over the proposal.

“I was struck by Uncle Billy,” said Goldfield (at left in photo, with Lemar at right) as aldermen discussed the matter at the end of a nearly two-hour meeting. “I guess sometimes you get what you pay for.”

“It’s not always clear that the bad job violates some law,” he added, indicating doubt over whether a marshal could be punished for mere mediocrity.

At the meeting’s end, Goldfield said he supports the proposal and believes aldermen should encourage other quasi-city agencies, particularly the Water Pollution Control Authority, to adopt a similar RFP process.

During the meeting, he noted that the working group had addressed a separate concern.

One major objection to the original bill was that it would threaten the relationship that attorneys have with their marshals. Perez’s initial proposal called for creating a “rotating list” by which law firms would have to divvy up city-related work evenly between marshals, instead of choosing whom to employ.

Goldfield, among others, argued that attorneys like to use marshals whom they trust, and should be allowed to do so. A rotating list would be hard to enforce and needlessly disturb those relationships, he argued.

The rotating list concept was eliminated from the bill. Perez said he is happy to move forward with the RFP process and intends to reconsider the idea upon reviewing the process in a year’s time.

Lemar said the final proposal “highlights the original intent of transparency, equitability, fairness,” without “imposing a new extravagant burden on attorneys.”

The proposal also seeks to “try to bring in people who may not be currently recognized in our process,” he said.

Diversity Encouraged

One other recent change to the ordinance is new language calling for the purchasing agent to “consider a balance of genders, ethnicities and multilingual ability” when creating the marshal list.

Susie Voigt (pictured), the Democratic Town Committee chairwoman, is the only woman out of 57 state marshals serving New Haven County, and one of only a few Spanish speakers. Most marshals are white men who got their jobs via political appointments from the state’s high sheriff before the system was reformed in the year 2000. Sheriffs of the old system were grandfathered into the new system, in which a state commission oversees a civil service process to fill vacancies in each county’s marshal list.

Voigt was present at Monday’s meeting, but did not testify. She stopped doing city work last year amid public outrage over marshals’ role in the foreclosure crisis. After the meeting, she applauded aldermen’s effort to encourage more diversity in the system. However, she said they should hold off on passing legislation until the General Assembly sorts through a series of marshal reform bills.

Lemar said the diversity language is routinely included in city RFPs. It was spelled out in the ordinance in order to emphasize the values of the board and to address the need for more women and minorities in the marshal system, he said.

The diversity clause would advantage only Voigt and other minorities in the unlikely case that more than 15 marshals apply through the RFP process and are willing to meet the lowest bid.

A Statewide Push

The Marshals Ordinance drew praise from New Haven’s State Rep. Bob Megna, who has been working on his own efforts at the state level to reform the process. When a rental property he owns was foreclosed on due to a missed tax bill, Megna was outraged to see his tax bill double due to added marshal fees.

This year, Megna (pictured) has sponsored a bill at the Capitol that targets two specific fees, for service of Lis Pendens and for photocopying pages. He said in his case, a state marshal charged him $488 just to serve five copies of the foreclosure suit. Of that fee, the marshal kept all but $65. Megna’s bill would have cut the marshal’s fees by 38 percent, saving him $183.

Megna commended aldermen for their proposal, which he said could have more impact than his own.

“By simply using the RFP process I believe you will save hundreds of thousands of dollars for taxpayers of New Haven,” he said. “The proposed RFP process will help prevent foreclosure by reducing costs while preserving the current collection rate.”

Mark DeAngelis (pictured), a Hamden-based marshal, objected to Megna’s characterization of marshals’ work.

“He made it sound simple,” DeAngelis said. But “we have a lot of responsibility on our shoulders.” He said in cases where hand-delivery is needed, making service is much more difficult than just driving around town.

DeAngelis was among a handful of state marshals who showed up Monday with a representative from AFSCME Council 4, a labor union with whom the New Haven County marshals have formed a new relationship. He used to work on the New Haven’s towing program, before it stopped employing marshals. He said he doesn’t do work for the city anymore. A member of an advisory board to the State Marshal Commission, he said he spoke on behalf of his colleagues in the business.

After the meeting, DeAngelis said he was concerned that the aldermen’s proposal would disturb a system that has been functioning properly for years.

“Sometimes if you try to fix something that’s not broke,” he said, “you’re going to cause a problem.”

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Comments

Posted by: Beansie's Mom | March 24, 2009 10:31 AM

High Sheriff system indeed. Grandfathered in.

No wonder my Mom likes it here versus Fairfield County. And I can see why she takes the time out on Orange Street to shake Rep Megna's hand.

Before I could walk, she was sent from the Marshalls in New Haven to find a Marshall in Fairfield to serve Dad papers. No wonder she knows all these back roads.

I plan I staying here in New Haven to finish elementary school and come back here for College.
Go Bulldogs.

As for for Mr. DeAngelis, If it was working correctedly, the BOA wouldn't have been asked to look into this matter. Maybe that Marshall should help keep the violence and other bad conduct from spilling over the Hamden border into New Haven.

I know she deals with undergrad students and hates it when she sees drinking on the street. So much so, she left her spot with my cousins by the grand stand to make sure I could make it to the Bus at then end of the St. Patrick's day parade.

Watch out Marshalls. My mom isn't afraid of officers, Sheriffs or deputies.

Posted by: JackNH | March 25, 2009 4:41 PM

State Rep. Megna might consider paying his taxes on time, thus sparing himself all his poor troubles.

Posted by: Robert Megna | March 26, 2009 7:41 AM

Believe me Mr. Jacknh now I make sure I do not forget to pay any of my 11 tax bills whether or not I receive a paper bill. If the tax bills were not constantly changing I would place them on automatic bill pay with my bank.

What amazed most when I requested a breakdown of the costs upon my tax foreclsoure bill was the cost to deliver the foreclosure complaint to 4 locations in New Haven. The actual marshal fee less any out of pocket expenses the marshal paid was $423.00. The fee was to simply leave the 5 page document or a copy at the doorstep of 4 locations in New Haven. The delivery task by the marshal takes an hour or 2 at the most. I thought it to be an extremely expense courier service.

In contrast, the Legal fees for the attorney, less out of pocket court costs to the law firm, to prepare the lawsuit and lis pendens, copy double check it, and staple it together for delivery by the marshal and release the lis pendens once the tax was paid was $300.00.

The legal work and preparation of the complaint cost less than the delivery of complaint and 4 copies to 4 locations.

I thought the marshal fees to be excessive and unjust to constituents and taxpayers about the state and therefore proposed HB 5174.

Bravo to Alderman Perez, Lamar and the others for the RFP proposel. That proposel will reduce much of the burden to the taxpayers of New Haven struggling to pay their tax bills and stay in their homes or hold on to their businesses. Those alderman put the people above politics and deserve special praise.

Posted by: The Voice of Reason | March 26, 2009 10:21 AM

Well, now that a few days have gone by I think I will weigh in.
... [I]f you know Rep. Magma you know that he is a scofflaw doing his best to redirect attention from his disgraceful conduct in attempting to avoid paying taxes while his dump was up for sale - you should also know that certain renovations were done without out the timely application for a building permit (my sources tell me).

Now, on to the substance: the RFP the alderman are contemplating is ill-advised at best, and perhaps illegal. If you look at the law, the regulation of the marshals is by the state marshal commission, their appointing authority. My sources tell me the aldermaniacs have not consulted with that commission.

Complaints regarding service done by marshals should fall on deaf ears. The reason the city forecloses is that someone is avoiding their obligations regarding the paying of taxes that funds the city and benefits us all.

We should have no sympathy for scofflaws and the aldermaniacs should stay within the charge contained in the city charter.

Posted by: Really? | March 26, 2009 3:13 PM

The Voice of Reason???? The Voice of Disinformation, perhaps? RFP's for Marshal services are done by many other agenicies and municipalities in Connecticut. Chairman Leamr and the Office of Legislative Services did contact the Marshall Commission via letter and Phone.

You sound like a State Marshal... uninformed, uneducated, but clearly connected to the "sources" that spread political lies and dole out information and cash. Megna, Perez and Lemar might not be your best friends or political allies ( I don't even think they are political allies themselves) but they are clearly trying to help... what, exactly, are you doing?

Posted by: The Voice of Reason | March 26, 2009 7:47 PM

Ms. Really?,

We would love it if you could post the letter you refer to and the response for us to read. The citizens of this city are sick of the politics. The aldermaniacs and mr. magma are in this for personal gain - they get articles in the real paper, am well as this online blogging thing because their targets are easy (the marshals are a group that no one wants to see on their doorstep as they never have good news).

With all due respect, get a grip and look below the surface.

Posted by: The Voice of Reason | March 27, 2009 12:56 AM

It is interesting to note that according to our "real" paper, the marshals are trying to affiliate with a union.

Does anyone know if that is even legal? They are not anyones employee as far as I know. Are they going to collectively bargain with the city? What do the aldermaniacs know about that? Will there be price fixing? Will magma be fitted with cement shoes or will he bring am action against them? As the marshals are independent contractors and are competitors, are they really united or, as the article says in the real paper, are they joining the union for just lobbying and representation when they have to appear in front of the commission when they have done wrong like a recent really bad issue with a Waterbury marshal?

Btw - does the marshal have a gun?

Posted by: concerned citizen | March 28, 2009 8:09 PM

I don't think anyone including Mr. Megna has a clue what a Marshal does on a daily basis. maybe he should spend the day with one to see exactly what they do..a marshal is put in harms way each and every time they serve a paper and if hurt on the job there is no workmans comp or benefits..if a marshal is sick and can't work there is no sick time..no work no pay..many papers need to be served in hand so that they must serve on evenings weekends and holidys with no overtime pay!! expenses are high..wear and tear on car..gas, insurance, liability insurance, retirement, state and federal tax, self insurance tax..too many to name..after billing they wait 30-60 days for payment..no luxery of weekly paycheck..filing fees, postage etc are paid in advance by marshal and again reimbursement is not immediate..if the city of new haven is truly concerned about the citizens of new haven maybe they should rethink the 18% interest fee charged to individuals for back taxes

Posted by: Robert Megna | March 29, 2009 8:42 AM

Concerned Citizen,

The 18% interest is law and the City of New Haven can not reduce it. It is not their option.

My concern is only the delivering of foreclosure complaints and the extremely high cost thereof. I am not concerned with the other tasks of marshals.

I believe the intent of the statute is not how many marshals apply it when they bill the homeowner or business owner or bank for that matter. I believe the statute is misinterpreted. Hence my bill is simply defining one service fee with respect to foreclosure and no double billing with respect to the dollar per page. I am clarifying the intent of the statute and nothing more.

Some marshals have become the wealthiest people in Connecticut because of what I beleive is an unintented interpretation of the statute.

One marshal grossed over 2 million dollars in 2007 simply dropping off foreclosure complaints.

For those marshals delivering foreclosure complaints and who maximize the bill to the homeowner under the statute would see a reduction of about 30% in the bill to the homeowner. If HB 5174 becomes law.

Even if my law passes, the marshals delivering foreclosure complaints would still be among the wealthiest people in Connecticut.

I have alot of respect for most marshals but the task of delivering foreclosure complaints is the same as that of the US Postal Service. Why should the homeowner or business owner be subject to a service simular to that of the postal service but at a cost 100 times greater? It seems unjust.

Posted by: concerned citizen | March 30, 2009 6:30 AM

it is my understanding that the city alderman have the power to change city ordinance and policy and procedure, therfore if New Haven wants to save its citizens some fees it has the power to do so..as far as you mr. megna once again you don't have your facts correct there isn't one marshal in hartford county that makes over 2 million dollars, he is in office with at least 1/2 dozen other marshals who work collectively together.. if you truly did your research you will find the average marshal makes well under 100,000 again that is gross, minus expenses...you do the math..as far as interpreteration of the law there is no double billing with foreclosures you have two separate services...a lis pendens which requires filing in the clerks office and getting certified copies which the marshal pays up front out of pocket then there is the complaint itself.

Posted by: High Time | June 22, 2009 11:58 PM

I was forced to pay a Marshall $60 to mail a $5 certified letter. That may not seem like much(especially compared to the horror shows above)but for five minutes of effort I think it's outrageous. I was the one that suffered the loss, created the suit, paid the lawyers, court fees, spent time and effort in court and filling out paperwork, NOT the Marshall. This is just another government hand needing to be greased to enable taxpayer business to proceed. This wreaks of cronyism and it's high time the system was reformed. Recessions are painful but serve to cleanse a bloated political process.

Panel OKs Marshal Reform

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