Matthew Giacobbe (Former Law Partner of Joseph Ferriero, receives public contracts via political connections, pay-to-play)
Joseph Garcia, left (Hack politician that hops from firm to firm with Joseph Lagana)
The Lodi Board of Education has seen its share of ethics complaints in recent years. If a board member asked for legal representation due to an ethics complaint, the board would vote to go through its insurance provider where it could incur the maximum cost of a $5,000 deductible.
Recently, the Giacobbe firm and whoever permitted it from the board office broke with all past practices. Sharon Salvacion had committed multiple ethics violations and a fellow board member at the time filed an ethics complaint against her. The board never voted to submit a claim with its insurance provider for legal representation. Instead, Mark Wenzcel decided to represent Sharon Salvacion and bill the Lodi taxpayers with no maximum dollar allowance. Why this arrangement is blatantly unethical:
1) Mark Wenzcel is the board attorney and not Sharon Salvacion’s personal attorney. The ethics complaint pit one board member against another. Lodi tax dollars are being used to pay legal bills. Mark Wenzcel has a clear conflict of interest.
2) Marc Wenzcel gave Sharon Salvacion bad legal advice that emboldened her to commit ethics violations. Mark Wenzcel’s unethical behavior led to a complaint that he is now making money off of.
3) It is in the district’s financial interest to go through the insurance provider with a $5,000 deductible. It is in Mark Wenzcel’s self-interest to have an unlimited, uncapped spending allowing to defend Sharon Salvacion’s unethical behavior.
The Superintendent and Business Administrator should have stepped in on this manner. Which one permitted this arrangement and the subsequent billing? They cannot give the Giacobbe firm full decision making authority on matters in which it has conflicts of interest and self-serving financial interests.
The Superintendent and Business Administrator should not be allowing the Giacobbe attorneys to illegally redact public records. The Giacobbe attorneys are illegally redacting public records to cover up their unethical actions and dishonest billing. A superintendent and business administrator should have the knowledge of what must be made available to the public. School board attorneys are supposed to submit invoices with the anticipation that someone may OPRA them. Eventually, an OPRA attorney will sue Lodi for its illegal redactions and then Giacobbe will use that as an opportunity to make even more money for itself even though Lodi will lose the case.
Giacobbe went over budget last year in Lodi. Giacobbe is going over budget this year. At the same time, Giacobbe received over $1,000,000 in forgivable government loans that were intended for small businesses hurt by covid restrictions. This should raise serious red flags for all board members.
https://lodioverhaul.blogspot.com/2020/08/state-senator-joseph-lagana-should.html
https://lodioverhaul.blogspot.com/2020/07/cleary-giacobbe-in-news-today.html
Lodi has 9 board members. All 9 members should be reviewing Giacobbe’s un-redacted legal invoices each month prior to approving the bills. Otherwise, they are complicit in the Giacobbe rip off.
The Superintendent and Business Administrator should be monitoring the legal costs. They should be reviewing who is contacting the firm and what is being discussed. Why are 9 different attorneys billing Lodi for such unnecessary matters?
