To the Editor:
The Jersey Journal’s Aug. 8 article regarding North Bergen’s municipal attorney’s $214,000 salary was quite interesting. It stated that the North Bergen municipal attorney’s salary is less than one-half that of what is allotted to the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority’s one-man legal team, Paul S. Werther Esq.
Mr. Werther’s last three contracts have been in the amount of $500,000 (2011-2012); $500,000 (2010-2011); and $350,000 (2009-2010). Mr. Werther went over the $350,000 limit in the 2009-2010 contract by $81,500. Much like the attorney from North Bergen, Mr. Werther is “of counsel” to a law firm that also benefits from its relationship with Mr. Werther (McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP). How one man could bill for so much money in such a short period of time and for the BLRA to have so little to show for it is beyond me.
Perhaps the City of Bayonne’s Corporation Counsel, Mr. D’Amico, who also serves as a municipal court judge in West New York when he’s not at his private practice in Secaucus, can look into this matter for the taxpayers of Bayonne, especially since the taxpayers of Bayonne do pay for his salary of $101,000 plus perks.
ELIZABETH WEINGARD