MDC report on DiBella, Sandler and legal fees. Longtime chair was not a cooperative witness, asked water and sewer authority officials to find work for his friend. Billing for breakfast meetings, hazy memories .

The MDC has released its report on its investigation of legal fees paid to and submitted by the law firm Sandler & Mara. The investigation was commissioned last year when members of the regional water and sewer authority discovered James Sandler had submitted invoices for performing legal work that commission members questioned.

The task of attorneys Patrick McHale and Jennifer Dixon, of Kainen, Escalera & McHale, P.C., appeared straightforward: Determine if the work on Sandler invoices had been authorized and performed. Interviewing witnesses–especially DiBella–proved a challenge.

DiBella, the longtime MDC chair, was interviewed for the first time on November 16, 2022. It lasted three hours. McHale, the report states, “was able to ask only a small portion of his questions because Chairman DiBella’s responses often strayed far afield from the questions asked resulting in lengthy responses consisting of information that was not under investigation. As a result, Attorney McHale needed to urge Chairman DiBella to answer only the questions asked which was something Chairman DiBella found difficult to do.” That is a kind interpretation.

Scheduling a second interview took weeks. DiBella’s attorney, Bart Halloran, wrote to McHale on December 27th of last year, “I believe a further interview, at this time, is not warranted. If you or the committee wishes to submit written questions to Chairman DiBella, we will review them and if appropriate, respond.”

The chair of the MDC was refusing to cooperate with an investigation authorized by its Audit Committee. DiBella agreed to meet with investigators on January 31, 2023. “After one hour and forty minutes, Attorney Halloran ended the second interview, and Chairman DiBella declined to cooperate further despite Attorney McHale’s request that he stay so that Attorney McHale could complete the interview. Consequently, the investigators did not pose all of their questions to Chairman DiBella.”

Without DiBella’s full cooperation, investigators were about to determine that in 2021, District Counsel Chris Stone intended to enter into a $50,000 retainer agreement with Sandler for the year. Stone “subsequently agreed to $70,000 after Attorney Sandler told him that Chairman DiBella had informed him that District Counsel Stone had $70,000 available for legal fees.”

DiBella could not recall all of the meetings listed in Sandler’s bills. He did remember attending breakfast meetings with Sandler, although he did not remember if they were in 2021 or 2022.

The money did not flow so easily to Sandler in 2022. DiBella asked Stone and another MDC official to “find work for Attorney Sandler in 2022, but neither of them had any work for him.” Nevertheless, Stone learned that Sandler had invoices for work purportedly performed in 2022.

Stone, who is becoming a counterforce to scheming at the agency, refused to continue hiring Sandler. DiBella and another board member Pasquale Salemi of East Hartford, found other ways. Growing attention on Sandler invoices last year and the initiation of the investigation preceded Sandler’s withdrawal of his final invoices.

The 46-page report of facts, findings and recommendations provides an opportunity for the agency’s full board to consider the way forward in discharging its duties in the public interest.

Published April 6, 2023.