Last summer as opponents of the three-story, 20-apartment unit, five-retail shop project took legal action and filed complaints against the proposal, the TC approved funds for special counsel to be brought in to help defend against the Village Keepers Inc., which objected to how the process was handled.
The group claimed the Maplewood Village Alliance had not acted properly in its review of the project and its subsequent approvals. The legal challenges were eventually dropped, but several on the Township Committee, Mayor Deluca among them, claimed the legal cost to the township ran upwards of $40,000.
The MVA even cited that amount in its agenda for discussion at one meeting last fall. (See below)
Maplewood
Village Alliance
Board of Directors Meeting
November 18, 2015 7:30 pm
Town Hall
AGENDA....
- Post Office Development
i. PO Sale Final
ii. PO - next Planning Board Meeting – 12/8
iii. PO Demolition – timing
iv. Final cost of Village Keepers lawsuit is $40,000+
- Underpass to Baker Street parking lot – safety concerns | railing
The breakdown of their legal bills are:
Desiderio: $5,083
Edelson: $6,177
Drill: $8,610
You can see them HERE.
In addition, other documents related to the project reveal that Developer Joseph Forgione and JMF Properties actually covered at least $11,600 of the legal defense and provided $25,000 in escrow for such costs.
Along with clarifying the actual legal costs involved, the bills also offer a window into what these attorneys do. How even a phone call to a Township official can cost money at a rate that can run up to $140 per hour.
And when one of the lawyers, such as Mr. Desiderio, calls another, such as Mr Edelson, the township pays for both of them at the same time.
Asked why there was such a discrepancy between the $40,000 cost that was often cited and the real payments, Mayor Vic Deluca said via email:
The
post office development is moving forward. There is no reason to keep rehashing
old arguments. I would rather us put our energy into making sure the project is
successful.
We asked Village Keepers President Dirk Olin what his group's legal costs were. He provided records indicating just over $16,000.
He also stated:
I can only reluctantly conclude that this misrepresentation was made for political purposes—to demean what was clearly strong and widespread opposition to a totally inappropriate and fiscally irresponsible structure. What was a lack of transparency now looks more like deceit.
We asked Village Keepers President Dirk Olin what his group's legal costs were. He provided records indicating just over $16,000.
He also stated:
I can only reluctantly conclude that this misrepresentation was made for political purposes—to demean what was clearly strong and widespread opposition to a totally inappropriate and fiscally irresponsible structure. What was a lack of transparency now looks more like deceit.
5 comments:
$140/hour is a bargain for an attorney's time
tsk tsk...Mayor Deluca has no response except to deflect. Mayor Deluca should be ashamed of his continued lying, all the time, on and on, about everything.
If you made a list of all the lies, over three years of this development's shenanigans, it would be very long.
Those who are and were on the TC and PB during these negotiations should come clean and expose his lies and their support of his lies.
Yes, it is! That means even more hours billed than one might estimate. What for? The legal complaint, and later Planning Board appeal, were never heard in court, and they only requested that Township follow the procedure that it had on the books already--that an analysis be done to support requests to demolish buildings in Maplewood Village. The Township spent money to defend its position that it had the right to ignore that existing ordinance. Seems like a lot of work that in the end, amounted to reducing the amount of information available the public from what existing Township ordinances intended. The disagreement was about doing the analysis--it was not about disagreeing with or changing the result of an analysis had it ever been done. [I am a member of the Village Keepers; this statement is a personal one only, made without knowledge of VK or its other members]
That's it? After all that barking about how shameful it is to think that people would sue to protect their rights to an honest process for the sale of public land.
Did the MVA receive the money? Under what premise? And where did it go?
Vic Deluca is a liar, con artist and flim-flam man.
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