Sunday, January 28, 2024

“Giacobbe” is Billing Lodi More than Past Attorneys. “Giacobbe” is Redacting Invoice Items that Had Never Been Redacted Before. Lodi BOE Members and the Mayor and Council Have Failed to Provide any Accountability, Transparency, or Oversight. Instead, they Have Allowed Lodi to be Ripped Off in the Dark.

 


Link to “Giacobbe” invoices approved by the Lodi Board of Education in December:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SlAcb3biERqDj1BbJjShrytuSPcEUxDU/view?usp=sharing

Link to “Giacobbe” invoices approved by the Lodi Mayor and Council in December:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-C5dY3DSD60AgT2kMbBH65696I13uqQn/view?usp=sharing

 

Matthew Giacobbe is being paid with Lodi tax dollars.  Matthew Giacobbe is redacting almost every subject line, so the public is not able to see what he is supposedly working on and how much he over bills for any specific item.  Giacobbe is citing “attorney-client privilege” as an exemption for almost everything.  I had been OPRA-ing legal invoices for the past decade and received invoices from at least five different firms.  No other firm had done what Giacobbe had done.  There usually are no redactions being invoices are public records and attorneys anticipate that they can be OPRA-ed and should be drawn up accordingly.

Lodi is allowing “Giacobbe” to rip off the taxpayers without any oversight or accountability.  Lodi is allowing “Giacobbe” to redact its own invoices.  Lodi is allowing “Giacobbe” to use “attorney-client privilege” to redact public items and public information that have nothing to do with “attorney-client privilege”.  This is an abuse.  This is the recipe for theft and misappropriation of public funds.  This is an intentional violation of the Open Public Records Act.

In 2017, I called out past Board Attorney Tony Sciarrillo for illegal billing and for lying about it.  Sciarrillo was forced to reimburse the district thousands of dollars.  During the ordeal, Sciarrillo stated at a meeting and on tape that attorney invoices are public records and firms must draw up a set of invoices in anticipation that a member of the public files an Open Public Records request.

Past Board attorneys may have initialed names appearing on invoices.  They never made redactions throughout invoices by citing “attorney-client privilege”.  

“Giacobbe” is a dishonest firm that over bills for inferior legal services.  It’s in Giacobbe’s interest to redact all of their invoices.  The blame for OPRA violations lies with others.  Lodi’s interim Business Administrator, Michael Rinderknecht, is the custodian of records.   He has prior experience in other districts as business administrator.  He has to be aware of what can and cannot be exempt under OPRA and that exemptions should be as specific as possible and not as broad and general as “attorney-client privilege” for everything.  Instead of doing his job, he delegated his duty to the firm whose invoices are at issue and in question. 

The blame lies with Lodi Board of Education members and members of the Lodi mayor and council that approve Giacobbe’s bills without ever reviewing them.  Elected officials can either be advocates for transparency or opponents.  Many took campaign contributions from “Giacobbe” and in turn allow the firm to rip off Lodi in the dark.

Reminder: the over redacted legal invoices are not the only blatant OPRA violations by the Lodi Board of Education since the installment of “Giacobbe” and allowing “Giacobbe” to oversee Lodi’s OPRA process.  They illegally redacted the recommendations on public audits.  They illegally redacted public settlement agreements.  They withheld public hearing submissions during COVID that were submitted electronically and readily available.  They redacted Nancy Cardone’s emails that didn’t contain confidential information.