More lawyers

On the heels of a nearly $10,000 initial 2024 bill from its legal counsel, the Middlesex Borough Council paid an even larger tab in the second go-round.

The second 2024 legal bill – covering work done from late January into late February – totaled $14,224. The council approved payment of the second bill at its April 23 meeting.

The $14K+ tab was from Savo, Schalk, Corsini, Warner, Gillespie, O’Grodnick & Fisher which serves as the council’s primary legal representative. At the same session, the governing body also paid a $2,443 bill from Apruzzese, McDermott, Mastro & Murphy. That firm serves as the council’s labor attorney.

Savo, Schalk’s late January/February bill ran up charges for the council from work on various legal matters. Inside – Middlesex obtained a copy of it by filing an Open Public Records Act request.

Asked about the latest legal bill at the April meeting, Mikolajczyk’s said that monthly legal expenses tend to fluctuate throughout the year. 

Savo, Schalk partner Chris Corsini is the lead attorney representing Middlesex Borough but the firm’s other members periodically handle legal matters for the municipality.

As with the year’s first bill, the firm’s attorneys were paid for work on a series of commercial tax appeals and ongoing questions from the reassignment of the former Cultural & Heritage Committee’s responsibilities.

Among its February work, the Savo, Schalk firm also dealt with a case involving a Whitney Drive property, ongoing consideration of purchasing the former Presbyterian Church parcel and a legal issue related to Creighton Lake.

The Whitney Drive matter is referred to on the Savo, Schalk invoice as both a legal/zoning issue and a property maintenance matter. Eleven charges on the invoice specifically refer to that property. They totaled 4.9 hours of work at a cost of $906.

The invoice notes that Savo, Schalk partner Matthew Flynn billed the borough for 17.8 hours of work, resulting in a charge of $3,293. Among the matters Flynn handled was the Creighton Lake issue. 

The invoice mentions that Corsini had several contacts via email or phone with Mayor Jack Mikolajczyk and Councilman Jeremiah Carnes involving the Film Commission and/or cable TV station News 12’s Main Street New Jersey segments.

News 12 visited Middlesex in March and featured several local businesses in the early morning segments. Early on, the mayor had tasked Carnes with overseeing the matter since he is liaison to the borough’s Film Commission.

The invoice specifies three instances when Corsini reviewed or wrote emails and one when he handled a phone call relating to either News 12 or the Film Commission. The document does not give further details on the reason for those contacts.

Legal work continued in February on several matters that appeared on the initial 2024 Savo, Schalk bill from January.

Corsini spent 5.4 hours on the C&H committee changes in February, resulting in a $999 charge. That came after $1,295 in work incurred the prior month.

Savo, Schalk billed for $1,252 worth of commercial tax appeal work in February. The borough was charged $1,693 for the appeals in January.

In a recent state filing, Savo, Schalk reported earning $106,135 in Middlesex Borough in 2023.

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