Friday, September 12, 2008

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.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

He was also too busy to get around to billing them for the legal fees !

shamrock said...

I know!! I saw that in the Swansea article too. Frank has no problem taking Fall River's money so he can apparently afford to do pro bono work for Swansea.

Anonymous said...

http://www.heraldnews.com/news/x332632207/Smiley-faced-chip-for-sale-on-eBay

Look familiar?!!!

ErinB

Anonymous said...

Or this one??!!!

The mayor on being elected:

I can only repay you by being the best possible mayor I can, he said, his wife, Patricia, standing to his left. Ill make darn sure that we build a safe city, that we increase our educational level, and that we get jobs into this community. Were not going to talk about it. Were going to get it done.

http://www.projo.com/massachusetts/fallriver/content/EB_FRMAYOR7_11-07-07_ST7P3NI_v7.359883f.html

He didn't say who he was repaying I guess he was speaking to Atty Frank!

Anonymous said...

I'm sick of Correia treating Fall River like his personal treasure chest. He continues to take and take from the resources of the city without giving anything back.

Anonymous said...

I thought most of this atty stuff was bs. i thought maybe Correia would swing this into a full time position, advocating that frank be a full time atty., ( Im not saying he is the best candidate for that either.) But to give 85 thousand for a part time job and...and to have the audacity to give him full health, for a "part Time' job is absolutley ridiculous. I also would have assumed that he would be resticted from representing anyone else. i would think a fulltimer with those benefits and restriction would be worth 85. Good Job Deputy Dawg
I have never in my 40 years of living in this city felt so disgusted with the blatant mediocrity and most of the time incompetence of the sitting mayor. I will not Vote for linda perreira this Teusday (expect a landslide!)because her hand is in this as well. I know she voted against this measure, but to me that simply isn't enough. If she wanted the rep seat, she should have bee a dawg on the bone on this issue. Now she's just a (political) dog.

Anonymous said...

Well maby you people need to GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT. Arthur is a great lawyer and you people are stupid for thinking that he is to busing to get around billing. you're just jeallous that you cannot afford such a grea lawyer as him. And im sick of you people thinking that the Mayor does nothing for your City, YOU PEOPLE JUST SCREW IT UP SO MUCH THAT HE HAS NO CHOICE BECAUSE HE HAS TO DEAL WITH FALLRIVER SCUM LIKE YOU ASSHOLES.