On Monday, May 24, Judge Brogan smacked down Wayne Township and ruled in my favor in the Open Public Records Act lawsuit I brought against Town Clerk Paul Margiotta and the Township. Judge Brogan also held that the Town is responsible for paying my attorney’s fees.

Despite the request by Wayne’s overpaid attorneys that Judge Brogan rule against me because I published their wrongdoings and compensation packages in the newspaper, the Judge applied the law to the facts and now the Town will write another check that could have been better spent in the schools. Instead, the belligerent refusal to comply with the law by Assistant Township Attorney McKniff will now cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars unnecessarily.

It ought to cost him his job. And if it doesn’t, it ought to cost the Mayor & the Council theirs.

Judge Brogan himself noted that in these trying times, municipal budgets are under siege. Teachers are being fired, entire school subjects are being eliminated and municipal services are being slashed. Compliance with the law to avoid financial liability is now more than ever an important management guideline for any fiscally responsible governing body. (Never mind the notion of fiduciary obligations & acting in good faith to do the right thing.)

The essence of this skirmish arose with the larger battle for a 43 foot wind turbine at my Hamburg Turnpike car wash looming in the background. The wrong legal advice of Township Attorney John McKniff to Clerk Paul Margiotta to withhold lawyers’ bills (including from Township Attorney Giacobbe’s law firm) led to judgment by the Court in my favor.

To try to wiggle out of monetary liability for breaking the law, McKniff – under penalty of perjury — signed a certification to the Court saying that the Town changed its position because of the hiring of Township Attorney Giacobbe after McKniff illegally failed to produce the requested documents. His story goes that Giacobbe, unlike McKniff, was able to read the law and apply it correctly. The Town’s eventual “cooperation” had nothing to do with the fact that I sued them, their lawyers said.

I imagine they even had to bite their tongues to keep from laughing out loud. And why the Town continues to employ McKniff — who admitted that he didn’t even follow the words of a statute that says, “Thou shall produce legal invoices” – not only defies logic, it defies the fiduciary obligations of the Mayor and Council.

The Council’s party line of fiscally responsible penny pinching is now contradicted by the fact that they continue to waste taxpayer dollars – not only for this lawsuit but also for the outrageously generous pay packages for the Township’s politically connected lawyers.

Assistant Attorney McKniff works for Wayne Township and earns $129,000/year (including a $4500 raise for 2010); medical benefits; pension; and 25 vacation days, 16 sick days and all 13 federal holidays. On top of overpaying McKniff — a lawyer who got the law wrong and caused substantial financial liability for the Town’s taxpayers – he is banking an absurd number of vacation and sick days to cash in for a future windfall of more our tax dollars when he retires.

Wonder what that ridiculous payday will cost the school programs. Maybe they’ll cut math from the curriculum — then we won’t be smart enough to follow the flow of money through this good ol’ boy network.

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