Borough government is anything but consistent.
However, there's been one constant at every Council voting meeting: Councilmen Jack Hansen and Rich DiGregorio voting "no" to the paying of bills $1,000 or more.
Their dissidence stems from the hiring, according to Hansen, three years ago of solicitor Wisler Pearlstine LLP of Blue Bell.
However, Wisler Pearlstine LLP replaced solicitor Friedman Schuman in January 2010. Friedman Schuman replaced longtime solicitor Dischell, Bartle and Dooley.
"My opinion is we are paying too much money for a solicitor. It's a lot of money," said DiGregorio.
DiGregorio said he was happy with the old solicitor and their services.
"I feel that Lansdale is paying too much. In the past, the solicitor did quality work," he said.
Furthermore, he said the new solicitor gets paid $65 more an hour than the previous one.
Hansen shared the same sentiment with his councilmate.
"Our solicitor is getting paid $175 an hour, where the old one was $100 an hour," he said. "It's absolutely ridiculous spending that kind of money for a solicitor who is doing the same job."
Hansen said when Wisler Pearlstine was first hired, it was paid $165 an hour.
"I don't know (if $175) is the number officially. It's the number I heard it recently went up to," Hansen said. "When I asked the question at a council meeting, I was told it had no bearing on my question and would not be answered in a public meeting, which is wrong also. It's the peoples' money."
DiGregorio said that amount over a year really adds up to overspending on the borough's part.
Even though their votes are always in the minority - there are nine councilmembers - DiGregorio and Hansen will stick to their guns.
"It makes no difference who the solicitor is," Hansen said. "It's too much money to pay for."
Yet for some reason they continue to vote YES on ALL SPENDING approved by that very same budget and financed by the General Obligation Bond that they voted AGAINST. The words confused and hyprocritical come to mind... So exactly where DO these two councilmen stand? It would be very interesting to see if one can get a straight answer to THAT question!
The irony of ALL of this, is that, at the time when Dischell was replaced by Friedman, Dischell's firm was getting a LOWER hourly rate than Friedman's. So the two Councilmen whining in this article are just (as I said before) being hypocritical.
Thank you for the additional infor. I appreciate you taking the time to answer. I will follow-up to get an answer to my question, why change the Solicitor for a more expensive one ( @ the tax payers expense)?
On the other hand, while Wisler is certainly a more expensive firm -- there's no denying that -- there was no history of the kind of patronage shown to Dischell or Friedman in the past. It appears that they were selected for their excellent reputation, and the fact that they had no previous ties to either party, at least here in Lansdale. My 2 cents -- hourly rate doesn't necessarily have a bearing on how much you and I as taxpayers get charged in total. It depends on how much that firm is used, and how efficiently they do their job.