RSW mentioned this in a previous post and some of you might have heard some of these comments on WDWS. I've put a media file link below that hopefully you can listen to, although I'm hardly a pro in such things. The gist of it is that Julia Rietz at last week's County Facilities meeting tore into those who would dare to question how much our attorneys are charging us. There's a lot to get into here, and I'm going to try to do it over the next couple days. Suffice it to say in this post that we've now paid Duane Morris over $600,000 to represent us on various issues related to the nursing home. Not only should County Board members be questioning that, they'd be remiss if they didn't.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| RietzAttorneyDefense_0001.wma | 465.67 KB |
I don't think anyone is too critical of Phebus billings, but the Duane Morris charges have been obsurd. The excessive Duane Morris charges clearly indicate they are not "on our side" as Rietz would have us believe, but are simply out to milk the county for all they can.The fact that Rietz can't acknowledge or admit this is distubing. County Board members have every right to question these outragous billings. The real question is why hasn't Rietz done more to question (and reduce) these billings. Seems to many as if she is more concerned with being blamed for hiring these Chicago attorneys than doing what's best for this county. Kudos to Shelden for posting this link so we can all hear Rietz in full denial.
Question for Mark Shelden:
Even at a generous rate of $600 per hour (our senior partner in a Chicago mega-firm charges less), Duane Morris has billed the county for at least 1000 hours of work. Can you tell us in short form what he has supposedly accomplished for the county with all those hours? Thanks.
It did not sound as bad as it seemed from reading the post. I can't say if she is defending the amount based on what is in the clip. The amount is clearly something to cause concern and inquiry by the board and public, although they haven't seemed to get a handle on that concept yet. I'm as exasperated and flabbergasted as any one about it. I thought her point was not to washout the greivences with your own council in pubic, especially when they aren't there to defend themselves. Not having heard the comments that she was addressing kind of leaves me in the dark about how approapriate her remarks were.This should be the public's buisiness, but you still need to be buisness-like. Its time to get deatiled billing and show the public what they are paying for. That should speak for itself. You don't need to do that with the paperwork on fire on the end of a pike...
Yet
I would describe the voice on the clip as "haughty". It looks like to me it is time for regime change.
Rietz sounds extremely defensive in the clip, as she should with a $600,000 bill. I don't see why county board members should be precluded from asking questions about what taxpayers have gotten for the $600,000. She seems to think that since the attorneys came highly recommended by other states attorneys and they "are working for us," then there should be no criticism of the bill. I'm not into Rietz bashing, but this is a little ridiculous and I hope Shelden keeps the heat on.
What has been accomplished is that we received our Certificate of need and a couple alterations to that certificate. We've also had them do some work related to our final costs and to the fine which we are negotiating with the HFPB on. That amounts to about $400,000. The other $200,000 was related to litigation over the mold issue. That's right, on top of he 150,000 that we owe Phebus we've already paid out $200,000
The two principle attorneys on our case earn $385 and $330 per hour respectively.
Too bad Ms. Reitz, did not comment on the cost to the taxpayers for the "wild goose chase" of a search involving Her Cop Husband "Barney's" missing "piece" a couple of months ago!! Andy says, " You beat everything, you know that Barney!"
Too bad Ms. Reitz, did not comment on the cost to the taxpayers for the "wild goose chase" of a search involving Her Cop Husband "Barney's" missing "piece" a couple of months ago!! Andy says, " You beat everything, you know that Barney!"
Too bad you can't come up with something more substantive than cheap shots at her spouse.
"Too bad you can't come up with something more substantive than cheap shots at her spouse."
Cosign. Please stick to the topic at hand.
On May 14th, 2008 at 08:52 PM, Arvid said:
Too bad Ms. Reitz, did not comment on the cost to the taxpayers for the "wild goose chase" of a search involving Her Cop Husband "Barney's" missing "piece" a couple of months ago!! Andy says, " You beat everything, you know that Barney!"
Too bad you can't come up with something more substantive than cheap shots at her spouse
Yea it's too bad the taxpayers have to pay for the incompetence that is running wild in regards to the County Board and Reitz. Hiring Chicago attorney's ? What's wrong with the 600 or so that are licensed in Champaign County? As for Officer Johnston, I wasn't taking a cheap shot at Him, HE lost His gun, and it cost the taxpayers a lot of money looking for it. I don't hear Reitz whining about the cost of that.
What costs? The officers who were looking were ON DUTY. Any citizen who reports losing a gun would get the same treatment.....Yes there were off duty officers looking for it, but they were off duty and not being paid.....