Atlantic City officials are up in arms about a 0,000 bill covering three months from the law firm that now runs the city’s finances.
But the city’s financial manager—handpicked by Governor Chris Christie—says his firm has already saved the city about $93 million by renegotiating a tax settlement with the Borgata Casino.
According to the Press of Atlantic City, the law firm of the city’s state-appointed financial manager Jeffrey Chiesa billed the state about $280,000 from November through January. The Press saw the bill through an Open Public Records Act request.
Chiesa personally requested $80,000 while his firm Chiesa, Shahinian & Giantomasi, based in West Orange, Essex County, billed the state $201,333, the paper said.
The figures drew sharp criticism, especially from the state’s public safety unions which are legally challenging planned layoffs and pay cuts.
“The dollar amount being spent on a firm to help stabilize Atlantic City’s finances is staggering,” Matthew Rogers, president of Police Benevolent Association Local 24, the city’s police union, said in a statement. “We implore the state to work with us to get a deal done, to get control back to local leaders so we can stop outrageous payments like what we see here.”
Chiesa, however, pointed to the recent agreement with the city and Borgata which reduced the city’s payment to the casino by about $93 million.
“I think in the time that we’ve been here we’ve had important successes on behalf of the city,” Chiesa told the Press.
Chiesa said the Borgata’s parent company, MGM Resorts International, are “sophisticated business entities” with “very outstanding attorneys” that made negotiations a heavy lift for his firm.
“That took a tremendous amount of effort and required really first-flight legal talent from the folks that were working on that case,” he told the paper.
He also said the lawsuits by the public safety unions were creating more costs from his firm.
Atlantic City Mayor Donald Guardian told the paper that the firm is also overseeing every aspect of the city’s government “from the library to the Tree Shade Commission to the Arts Commission.”
“They are now getting a copy of the agenda, approving the agenda. They are getting a copy of the minutes, approving the minutes,” Guardian said in February. “Lots of billable hours.”
According to the Press, the state redacted details of the firm’s work from the invoices it obtained due to attorney-client privilege, the state Attorney General’s Office said.
The payments also come as it was reported that the state casino Reinvestment Development Authority has laid off 15 percent of its workforce. The authority recently lost most of its funding when casino reinvestment development funds—about $22 million for the year—were channeled to the city to help pay off its about $500 million debt.
