Tonight, the Board interviewed 6 law firms for position of Board Attorney. As soon as the interviews ended, Nardino and Marra rushed to say that they really liked “Busch”. Cardone quickly went for the motion to hire “Busch” before any of my questions were answered.
All signs showed that “Busch” had the inside track.
Some of the other presentations were amazing. Some firms are well known throughout Bergen
County. They have long track records representing
school districts. As known entities, they were easy to research.
The Board should have conducted a more lengthy
evaluation and discussion. This was a
really serious appointment and should not have been done in haste.
Once again, Frank Quatrone interjected himself into
the conversation and went as far as telling Joe Leto not to ask “Busch” my very
important question: what school districts are the two “Busch” attorneys
currently serving as General Counsel? I
had asked that question during the presentation and it wasn’t answered.
I also questioned why Quatrone and Capizzi previously
met with four firms and not the others.
How did Quatrone select the four?
Why did Quatrone omit some of the best known firms who happened to give
really good presentations tonight?
Quatrone refused to answer any of my questions.
Marra said many times that he didn’t care about the
price and the Board shouldn’t bother negotiating.
The interviews were conducted in open session but they
were not video taped. The politicians
capitalized on that fact.
I hope that “Busch” serves Lodi well. I am concerned why Quatrone and his go to
puppets favored “Busch” over the others and clearly provided them the inside
track. I am bothered that Leto refused
to conduct this process prior to July 1st and then rushed everything
tonight.
Side note: The owner of the Busch law firm is the Mayor
of Metuchen and is very involved with the state politics. The Metuchen Mayor before Busch is currently serving as Governor Murphy's Chief of Staff. When Lodi politicians have their minds made
up before deliberations, you have to wonder how politics came into play.
