Who will pay the tab for panel’s legal bills?

Six panel members were sued individually by another panel member.

STAFF REPORT

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — The chairman of a study commission that is investigating whether to recommend a new form of county government wants the county to pick up the tab for legal services.

The bills totaling $2,720 from attorney Peter Clark date back to July, when he began representing six commission members in a civil suit filed against them by another panel member.

That panel member, Richard Audino, wants to see the commission disbanded. He had made a motion July 2 that ended the panel’s business and essentially terminated it, and that motion passed 6-5.

But on July 24, the panel revisited the issue on a motion made by member Dwayne Evans, who originally voted in favor of Audino’s motion but changed his mind.

A revote resuscitated the commission, passing 6-3, and Audino sued the six members who voted for it. He sued them as individuals. His suit is still pending in court, though the court did not grant a request for an injunction to stop the panel from meeting.

County commissioners had turned down a previous request to reimburse $1,600 in legal bills for the six panel members, saying that because they were sued as individuals, the county wasn’t obligated to pay their fees.

At the commissioners’ meeting Thursday, study panel chairman David Kennaday handed the commissioners an invoice for the new total and requested that it be paid.

Commissioners’ chairman Steve Craig said they would refer the bill to the county’s solicitor and the county controller.

Craig asked Kennaday if Clark was retained by an official action of the study commission.

“Not so,” said Kennaday. “It affected six of us, and there was no opportunity to take action.”

“Was the commission sued collectively or individually?” Craig asked.

“Individually, but six was a majority,” Kennaday said. The commission had 11 members. One has since resigned.

“Was there any contract, or documentation of what the fees would be?” Craig asked.

“None,” Kennaday answered.

The commission, which was approved by voters in November 2007 and is studying whether to recommend a council-manager form of government and a home-rule charter on the ballot next November, has had its share of problems.

It has not had a quorum at its meetings, which are now every other week, since Oct. 1. Without a majority present, the panel can’t vote and make any of its decisions official.

It had a $12,000 budget for the nine months it was to meet, but it is out of money and needs more for a second nine months it got as an extension because it decided to study home-rule.

It has asked the commissioners for another $12,000, but the commissioners wanted a detailed account of how it would spend the money. Commissioners have an obligation to fund a government study commission.

The study panel has not yet given its budget details to the commissioners, and the commissioners did not provide funding for the panel in the 2009 proposed county budget, which was introduced Tuesday, Craig said.

Craig previously had said that the commissioners could introduce a line item until the budget becomes final Dec. 30. It could also reopen the budget next year, he has said.

But Craig also has questioned whether the county is obligated to fund a commission that can’t convene itself.

The Vindicator asked Kennaday what the study commission intends to do about securing an allotment in the county’s budget.

“We’ll see when we get a quorum,” he said.