Legal firm waives its bill for services

A trustee received e-mail notification of the decision.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- A roughly 1,200 bill for legal services that caused a stir among officials earlier this year has been waived.
Trustee Kathy Miller said the firm Buckingham, Doolittle & amp; Burroughs, which is based in Columbus but has offices in Akron, notified her via e-mail Tuesday that the firm wouldn't pursue the bill.
"I just asked them to forget it, and they said OK," Miller said. "I figured we'd resolve it one way or another."
In August, the township received a 1,192 bill for less than five hours of legal work for the township. The bill had been sent to Michael Villano, who served for about three weeks as the township administrator before resigning.
Two sides to story
To hire outside legal counsel, trustees are required to make a motion to that effect and to set a monetary cap that those services aren't to exceed. That motion wasn't made before the township received the bill.
At the time, Miller and Trustee Robyn Gallitto said that they believed that Villano was consulting someone for free legal advice.
Villano said in August that he had contacted the firm about the township civil service commission's scoring of hiring and promotional exams. He had said Gallitto asked him to look into it because she believed the tests were being scored improperly.
Initially, the firm wasn't going to charge, but Villano said at the time that Miller and Gallitto both had additional questions after the initial inquiry and the firm then indicated there would be a charge for the work.
He has said the two trustees told him to go forward with it.
Both Miller and Gallitto have said they were unaware of a fee when they told the former administrator to pursue the legal advice, and that they didn't OK spending the money.
Alternatives
At a special meeting in August, William Leicht, township fiscal officer, said he had contacted the Mahoning County Prosecutor's office about how to address the bill.
One alternative, he had said, was to pass a resolution of moral obligation to pay the bill.
Miller said she feels bad about the whole controversy and that the firm isn't going to get paid. "They made a business decision," she said.