Council amended and approved a contract extension for the township attorney, Michael W. Herbert, and his Lawrenceville-based law firm, Herbert, Van Ness, Cayci & Goodell, at its June 11 meeting. The administration had recommended a one-year contract, expiring June 30, 2013, for a sum of $229,917.30. That term was changed to a six-month basis, expiring December 31 and to be reviewed again at the Council’s 2013 re-organization meeting early next January. The amount will be $114,958.65, or half of the proposed year-long deal.
Business Administrator Robert Hary clarified that Council and the administration had the option of making the contract extension coincide with Mayor Hsueh’s current term in office, which expires at the end of 2013. That would have left a possibility for Herbert’s contract to be an 18-month deal, or a breakdown of 12 months and then six months.
Hary also told Council that regardless of which choice was made now, the township’s law firm contract was one of few that remain on the July 1 to June 30 contract cycle (from before township elections were changed to November). Herbert said he had no preference and that he would not take any comments made as a personal offense.
At the June 11 council meeting Bryan Maher said that he would feel more comfortable approving a one-year contract for Herbert’s firm if he had spent more time working with the current township attorney. Herbert and Maher joked that they would have to go out for a beer or pizza, but Maher and Linda Geevers were adamant that the contract should be reduced to six months.
Mayor Hsueh was less than pleased that Council made that decision. “This means in January we have to do it again. Council can decide to do whatever they want to do, but we cannot have a situation where every time you have new councilmembers you have to change everything,” he said.
“I just wanted Council to have some respect for the system. As a mayor I have to make certain kinds of decisions — that is governmental operations, standard operating procedures. You cannot say I don’t like it so therefore we will not go forward with mayor’s decisions and follow the system. Again, I turned it over to Council and the Council majority can decide whatever they want to do,” Hsueh says.
The appointment of a township attorney is the responsibility of the mayor alone. Council must approve a contract, just as with other firms hired by the township. “We need to go through Council to make sure they approve of the budget for the law firm and their hourly fee,” Hsueh said.
Michael J. Herbert, the late father of current Township Attorney Michael W. Herbert, earned the initial contract as the township’s law firm in 1997, four years before Mayor Hsueh was elected. As a councilman at the time, Hsueh says he did not question Mayor Carson’s appointment of the township attorney the way some members of council do now.“I never thought about partisan issues with regards to the law firm. My only concern is that we have the services of a decent lawyer,” Hsueh said.
