MDC Braces for Fireworks at Wednesday Meeting. Audit Committee Wants Independent Investigation of Legal Fees. Refers Complaint to Ethics Committee.
Observers expect a contentious meeting of the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) board at its Wednesday meeting. It begins at 5:30 p.m. Members of public may listen to the meeting by dialing (415) 655-0001. The access code is 43808661#.
Board members face a full agenda. It includes a report from the Internal Audit Committee on the sharply disputed issue of MDC payments for legal services to the firm of Sandler & Mara. A summary:
The Internal Audit Committee has been busy. It alleges that MDC Commissioner Alvin Taylor attempted to bypass the committee’s investigation into legal fees paid, claimed or owed to Sandler & Mara by attempting to negotiate a settlement with a representative of the law firm and “thereafter contacted one or more Commissioners to solicit their support” for a settlement. The committee requests the board refer the matter to the MDC Ethics Advisory Committee (which probably has not done a lot of business over the decades) for its review of Taylor’s alleged unauthorized intervention.
There’s more. The Internal Audit Committee requests the commissioners authorize the sum of $50,000.00 to retain outside counsel to conduct an independent investigation into 2021 and 2022 Sandler & Mara, P.C. invoices. This suggests the investigation has become more complicated than the committee–recently reconstituted–can handle.
Another document from the committee notes that it has submitted questions to MDC’s longtime chairman, William DiBella, concerning the Sandler & Mara, P.C. billing issue. The report does not indicate if it received answers from DiBella by its September 1st deadline.
DiBella has recused himself from the Sandler matter because, as DiBella stated at the critical August 1st board meeting, the Old Saybrook denizen who established his residency in Hartford by keeping his toiletries at his son’s home overlooking Bushnell Park, is a personal and business client of Sandler.
Published September 7, 2022.