Council amended and approved a proposed contract extension for the township attorney, Michael W. Herbert, and his Lawrenceville-based law firm, Herbert, Van Ness, Cayci & Goodell, at its June 11 meeting. The administration had recommended a one-year contract, expiring June 30, 2013, for a sum of $229,917.30. That term was changed to a six-month basis, expiring next year and to be reviewed again at the Council’s 2013 re-organization meeting early next January.
Business Administrator Robert Hary clarified that Council and the administration had the option to make the contract extension coincide with Mayor Hsueh’s current term in office, which expires at the end of 2013. That would have left the options for Herbert’s contract as an 18-month deal, 12 in one term and 6 in the next. Hary also told Council that regardless of which choice was to be made the township’s law firm contract was one of the few remaining on the July 1 to June 30 contract cycle (from before elections were changed to November). Herbert, seated on the dais, said he had no preference for what Council could decide and that he would not take any comments made as a personal offense.
At the June 11 council meeting Bryan Maher contended that he would feel more comfortable approving a contract length of one-year for Herbert’s firm if he had spent more time than the first five months of this year working with the current township attorney. Herbert and Maher joked that they would have to go out for a beer or pizza, but Maher and Linda Geevers were adamant that the contract should be reduced to six months.
Mayor Hsueh was less than pleased that Council made that decision. “This means in January we have to do it again. Council can decide to do whatever they want to do, but we cannot have a situation where every time you have new councilmembers you have to change everything,” he said.
“I just wanted Council to have some respect for the system. As a mayor I have to make certain kinds of decisions — that is governmental operations, standard operating procedures. You cannot say I don’t like it so therefore we will not go forward with mayor’s decisions and follow the system. Again, I turned it over to Council and the Council majority can decide whatever they wanted to do.”
The appointment of a township attorney is the responsibility of the mayor alone. Council must approve a contract, just as with other firms hired by the township. “We need to go through Council to make sure they approve of the budget for the law firm and their hourly fee,” Hsueh said.
Michael J. Herbert, the late father of current Township Attorney Michael W. Herbert, earned the initial contract for his firm to serve as the township’s law firm in 1997, four years before Mayor Hsueh was elected. Hsueh recollects that at the time Mayor Carson was a Republican. He says that as a Councilman at the time, he never had questions as to a possible political affiliation for Herbert’s firm.
The mayor referenced Herbert, Van Ness, Cayci & Goodell’s coverage of multiple towns — both Democratic and Republican leadership. He points to the firm’s representation of “a very active Republican” in Hopewell, saying the current members of council should not try to imagine that political agendas are at play.
“I never thought about partisan issues with regards to my involvement with the law firm. My only concern is that we have the services of a decent lawyer. Every time you change the lawyers you will lose a lot of institutional memory, and that would waste a lot of time,” Hsueh said.
