Pay more, expect less - Attorney Arthur Frank

The debate over Mayor Correia's request to increase part-time city attorney Arthur D. Frank Jr.'s salary 75% from $48,500 to $85,000 for the 21 hour a week position that includes full time city benefits is not a new issue. This being said, I was quite surprised that the majority of the city council didn't rubber stamp Correia's request at the last city council meeting. This extension allowed me more time to think about the issue and I am not only annoyed by it, but now I am outraged at the thought of giving Frank a 75% pay increase.

In addition to the prior reasons for my opposition, which are:

• Attorney Frank publicly censured in MA and RI for lying to a client over the course of 4-5 years in a workers compensation claim. Attorney Frank told the client he filed a lawsuit in the case in 1991 (he had not), strung the client along for years telling him that he was waiting for the case to be heard by the court. In 1995 Frank finally came clean and admitted to the client that he had not filed suit against the former employer.
• Correia included the raise in the budget before getting permission from the city council for the raise.
• At the proposed rate, Attorney Frank would make $33,000 more a year than the MA Attorney General Martha Coakley if this was a full time position. Attorney Frank would also make $20,000 more than the Governor Patrick at that rate in a full time capacity.

I have some new concerns:

• Fall River lost a court case recently because no one from our overpaid law department could be bothered to show up to court! According to the Herald News, the law department denied a claim for $1,150.15 in damages to a car as a result of a pothole. The complainant appealed their decision and won in court when no city attorney showed up. In the real world when a client's attorney doesn't show up to court and the client loses as a result, we call that malpractice.
• Perhaps Frank was busy that day representing one of his other clients, the town of Swansea, in a $100 parking ticket case that ended up costing Swansea $2,200 in legal expenses.

With proposals like the one to give Attorney Frank a gigantic raise for not showing up to court, it is really hard to take Mayor Correia seriously or to believe he has the best interest of the city in mind.