Moonlighting

In February of this year, Attorney Steven A. Torres, sat before the Fall River City Council and defended his recently signed contract, for his position as the city's corporate counsel. The city councilors questioned the fact that Torres was making more money than any previous corporate counsel for Fall River. Torres and Mayor Flanagan justified the $115,000 salary by asserting that the pay reflected the fact Torres would be eliminating his private practice to focus on Fall River full time. (note: At that time, I couldn't find any information supporting the claim that Atty Torres even had a private practice and the MA board of bar overseers website indicated Torres did not carry any attorney malpractice insurance because he was a government employee.)

Consider the fact that Torres justified his increased salary with the notion that he was losing money by giving up his private practice. Then imagine my surprise when I read an article out of Wareham recently which evidenced the fact that, 10 months into his contract with Fall River, Torres was still working side jobs:

"A report on the forensic audit of town computers, which has been in progress for nearly a year and a half, is once again delayed. Town Administrator Mark Andrews and the Board of Selectmen had been told that special counsel, the Law Offices of Steven A. Torres, would be prepared to present the results of the audit on Sept. 28 or October 5."

Pretty sneaky of Torres and Flanagan considering the fact that the City Council approved Torres' increased salary based on the premise that Torres was eliminating his private practice to, presumably, focus all of his efforts on the matters of Fall River. This is clearly not the case.

I think Torres is already overextended in his capacities as co-mayor of Fall River. I kid, I kid........... However, there have been many occasions where I have read in the Herald News, or heard at city council meetings that Corporation Counsel hadn't completed some task requested of them. Also, Torres went before the city council to get approval for another $45,000 budgeted so he could hire another attorney for the office - I certainly hope the addition of a new attorney wasn't to free up time for Torres to moonlight