New Haven Independent

Last month, the city locked in lower rates from eight state marshals for city-related foreclosure and tax warrant work. The program, the result of reforms driven by Aldermen Roland Lemar and Jorge Perez, aimed to save taxpayer money.

As the result of a new competitive bidding process, participating marshals were forced to lower their fees by as much as 30 percent.

Click here to view the new rates and participants.

James Neil, director of operations at the State Marshal Commission, got wind of the program a couple of weeks after the city sent out a Request For Proposals (RFP) to marshals in April. Since his agency already regulates the activities of state marshals, he questioned whether the city has the legal right “to get into the business of [regulating] marshals at all.”

The city refused to reconsider its new marshal ordinance and RFP. Neil then turned to the state’s attorney general for legal advice. Meanwhile, he said he’s asking the city and the eight marshals to “hold the phone.”

“We simply asked the city and marshals to suspend this agreement,” pending a formal legal opinion by Attorney General Dick Blumenthal, said Neil.

Neil said he asked Blumenthal broad constitutional questions surrounding “the ability of a municipality to step in and regulate something that the state regulates.” He also questioned if the city can set rates for marshals, when the city is not their direct employer. Marshals work as independent contractors: For foreclosure suits, they’re paid by law firms hired by the city; for tax warrants, they’re paid out of scofflaws’ pocketbooks.

“Can a city dictate fees?” Neil asked in a phone interview. “I’m not sure they can.”

In two July 23 letters to New Haven County marshals and city staff, Neil asked both parties “not to execute any agreements” resulting from the new RFP.

City spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga said the city will not suspend the program.

“Individual state marshals have agreed to work with us, and we’re happy to work with them,” she said. “We see no reason to suspend our work with the marshals at this time.”

She said the city is working with the commission on addressing any legal issues. In a June 24 letter to Neil, James Del Visco, an assistant corporation counsel, defended the process as perfectly legal. He said the city isn’t issuing financial or insurance requirements above and beyond state law. It is merely asking marshals to prove that they’re in compliance with existing laws.

“Day Late, Dollar Short”

Marshal William Nolan brushed off Neil’s request.

“The commissioner’s a day late and a dollar short,” said Nolan (pictured), one of the eight marshals who’ve signed up to take on city work.

Nolan, who first warned against lowering the fees, said he bid a fair price and he’s looking forward to taking on city jobs. He said he’s glad that the competitive bidding process opened up work to other marshals like him. Previously, two close mayoral allies dominated the majority of the lucrative foreclosure work.

Nolan noted that the city’s bidding process isn’t the first one in the state, or even in town: It’s based on an existing process at the New Haven housing authority. He suggested the commissioner check out that process, too.

Neil replied that he wasn’t aware of the housing authority’s procedures until recently.

Marshal Robert Miller, who has worked extensively with the housing authority as part of that agency’s bidding process, said he could think of nothing wrong with a system by which marshals agree to work for a lower fee.

Miller signed up in July to take on work for the city. He said he’s looking forward to serving tax warrants in September.

As of Thursday, Blumenthal’s office had not yet issued a formal opinion on the topic. During a visit to City Hall last July, he publicly praised the city’s reform effort, though he didn’t address specific legal questions.

Marshal Miller said he’s confident Blumenthal will rule in favor of the city’s cost-cutting plan.

“I’d be shocked” if the attorney general ruled otherwise, Miller said.

“I can’t imagine why he would think that we couldn’t do work for less.”