Below are the links to the two sets of legal invoices
that your Lodi Board of Education members approved for the “Giacobbe” firm at
their March meeting.
Link to set one:
Link to set two:
Please review the 2nd set of invoices very
carefully. “Giacobbe” had some attorney
named Bradley D Tishman bill Lodi $891 to "review" the most specific, basic OPRA
request for an existing public record.
The Lodi board of education members quietly snuck in and
approved a very special separation agreement for a former BOE member’s
wife. I submitted the most specific OPRA
request for a copy of the agreement which by definition is a PUBLIC
RECORD.
“Giacobbe” billed $891 to "review" the request. There was never any question that the
agreement is public record and any member of the public had a right to request
it. By law, the district had to produce the agreement and it did. The only thing that was redacted was
the employee’s name. It was WRONGFULLY
REDACTED by "Giacobbe". The public has a right to see
the employee’s name.
There
is no explanation or justification for these legal bills just like there never
was any justification in September when I began flagging all the unnecessary
charges.
"Giacobbe" attorneys did everything possible to hide the agreement from the public, even using illegal language. They billed $891 not to review the request or to redact a name. They billed $891 to research how to keep the public record from getting to the public. And they couldn't make that happen. But they billed the Lodi taxpayers anyway. And the board members allowed them to get away with it.
Politician run
law firms can only rob as much as board members allow them to rob.
Did any board member bother to review these invoices? Do any find serious problems with the billing
each month? Can any board member explain
why an attorney billed the district $891 to review a basic OPRA request for an
existing PUBLIC RECORD?
The district was notified in 2017 that legal invoices must be specific and can be accessed by the public when requested via OPRA. The district was notified that “Board Matters” is too general to list on invoices. Giacobbe is submitting more and more invoices labeled “Board Matters”.
Mark Wenzcel cannot be as incompetent as he is
pretending to be with all the outrageous “research” for the most basic subjects.
Joseph Garcia is an arrogant former Paramus council member
that hops from one political firm to another, attached to State Senator Joseph Lagana. When you have a politician posing as a school
attorney, things do not turn out well. Matthew Giacobbe sent Joseph Garcia to a board meeting in October to get the board to violate an OFAC corrective action plan. At the time, he did not succeed. They are the sleaziest of attorneys.
Board members in other districts should start reviewing
Giacobbe invoices. The firm’s abuses
will not be isolated to Lodi. There
likely will be more accountable coming from other districts than you will get
from Lodi.
School districts would be better served by school
attorneys that specialize in school law.
Money wasted on politicians posing as school attorneys is money taken away from
Lodi students and struggling Lodi taxpayers.
