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NJ comptroller finds North Bergen paying higher salaries than average to lawyers
STAFF WRITER
North Bergen taxpayers have been paying the salary and benefits for one attorney though officials did not know what services he actually provided, and paying a “substantially higher” salary to its township attorney than what the state’s four largest municipalities pay their senior counsels – and significantly more than what the state Attorney General makes – according to the State Comptroller’s Office.
In a report released today, the Comptroller’s Office singled out North Bergen and four other local government agencies for their legal spendings.
In the case of North Bergen, the Comptroller’s Office raised numerous red flags. It found that officials never did a study to compare the salary of its township attorney, Herbert Klitzner, to others in his field. Klitzner was the state’s highest-paid municipal attorney in 2011: His $207,870 salary far exceeded the $154,057 earnings that the city of Newark, the state’s largest municipality, paid its attorney, as well as the state Attorney General’s $141,000 salary.
The Comptroller’s Office also noted that Klitzner often referred work to an outside firm with which he’s affiliated, in possible violation of the Local Government Ethics Law.
Klitzner is Of Counsel with Chasan Leyner & Lamparello, which in 2011 billed North Bergen $371,407, the most of any of the township’s outside firms, according to the report. Klitzner does not receive a salary from Chasan but is provided an office and support services from the firm, he told investigators. His name remains on the company’s letterhead and he’s listed in the firm’s directory.
Klitzner reported that he checked with, and received approval from, the attorney ethics board to serve concurrently as township attorney and Of Counsel with Chasan. However, the Comptroller’s report stated that ethics standards for local government employees are different than those that apply to all New Jersey attorneys. The issue has been referred to the state Local Finance Board for possible ethical breaches.
The Comptroller’s investigation noted other deficiencies in North Bergen. Officials could not immediately explain the job duties of several of the township’s 10 in-house attorneys. None had written employment agreements or job descriptions other than Klitzner, though the township eventually provided documents concerning the duties of all but one attorney.
That attorney, whose name was not released in the report, was paid $18,807 in 2011, though township officials weren’t certain of his role. The attorney immediately resigned after the township launched an internal review, prompted by the Comptroller’s investigation. The township said he was paid without the consent of officials and that it would refer the matter to the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office.
The attorney disputes that he was paid without knowledge, however, saying he served as the housing attorney for many years and was active in this role until 2006 when he stopped receiving work because of a falling out with a construction code official and had to “create” his own work. He claimed that Klitzner took housing-related legal work from him and reassigned them to the Chasan firm on multiple occasions, the report stated.
Beside his pay, the attorney received more than $26,000 in health benefits from the township in 2011, and was enrolled in the state pension system as a North Bergen employee from 1988 to 2011. The Comptroller’s Office has referred the matter to the state’s Dvision of Criminal Justice for review.
Tuesday’s report also noted that North Bergen officials paid a senior partner at Chasan up to $25,000 for “non-descriptive billings” that did not specify the legal service he performed, the report stated. The attorney told investigators he intentionally kept the billing statements nonspecific so as not to disclose litigation strategies or politically damaging information. “This practice, however, hinders transparency [and] heightens the risk of improper payments,” the report stated.
The township also failed to follow the evaluation procedures it set forth in its request for proposals to award service contracts, lacked specific policy for how it would assign work to outside firms, and that it did not enter into formal written contracts for outside counsel, the report found. The township was billed about $60,000 from Chasan for handling landlord/tenant issues though the township had not awarded it a contract to perform such services, the investigators found.
In addition to North Bergen, the Comptroller’s Office reviewed the legal spendings of the town of West New York, township of Medford, and the Freehold Regional High School District and Plainfield Public Schools district.
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