Published: April 17, 2008 12:35 am            

SOMERSET: Lawyers' pay is clipped

SOMERSET — The town board has trimmed the pay of the law firm that has represented it for more than four decades.

Lawyers from Andrews, Pusateri, Brandt, Shoemaker and Roberson PC will not get $175 an hour as proposed in March, but will be paid out of its $2,300 monthly retainer, according to Councilman Randy Wayner.

“We’re not cutting back, we’re holding them to the contract they agreed to earlier this month,” Supervisor Richard Meyers said. The changes were made at the March meeting and were to go into effect April.

The lawyers will be paid $175 per hour for litigation. For general town matters, the firm is to be paid out of the retainer. Litigation hours must be estimated in advance.

Wayner, who worked for the change, said up until Monday it looked like the hourly fee would go from $125 to $175. The town took out the $125 fee and replaced it with the retainer.

“Now we want estimates ahead of time to hold our attorney to it,” Meyers said.

Edwin J. Shoemaker is listed as the town attorney, but has not attended board meetings this year. Robert Roberson has represented the law firm.

Thomas Brandt is the Royalton town attorney. Shoemaker is the town attorney for Somerset and Cambria.

The late Wesley Andrews, a World War I veteran, was the town attorney for many years. “They have done a good job the town for many years, particularly when it comes to protecting the AES assessments in years gone by,” Wayner said.

Meyers noted that the town paid $210,000 in attorney fees for the lawsuit in 2007 opposing the payment in lieu of taxes agreement for AES Somerset. Niagara County paid half of that, $110,000, according to the supervisor.

Somerset is now considering a Host Community Agreement with Empire State Wind Energy and will meet with Keith Pitman, the chief executive officer of Empire, next Wednesday. Shoemaker and Roberson agreed to study the proposed contract and have a report due today, according to Wayner.

The cost of the new report will be paid out of the retainer. “We’re hoping we have a completed, agreed-upon document by the 23rd,” Meyers said.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.