Carfora: East Haven Pays Millions On Lawyers; Town Atty: ‘Not So’

EAST HAVEN, CT — A discussion about how much taxpayers in the town of East Haven are paying in legal fees - and how much of that money is going to the town attorney's law firm - turned tense at the most recent Town Council meeting.

Democratic Town Council member, and announced mayoral candidate Joseph Carfora, initiated the discussion when he said a “concerned worker in Town Hall” had brought to his attention expensive legal bills that the town has incurred from July 1, 2015 to Oct. 5, 2018.

The bills, according to Carfora, were about $2.62 million, $1 million of which were for Town Attorney Joe Zullo's law firm, according to Carfora.

Carfora provided Patch a copy of the document he (Carfora) referred to. In response, Zullo provided his own document (see photo) that shows charges for the same time period were significantly less.

Carfora said the town deserved answers as to what this money was being spent on.

Zullo, who is also the town's state representative, called Carfora's words a "grandstanding performance by a mayoral candidate."

Zullo, disputed Carfora's figures, adding that if he made the kind of money that Carfora said he has made over the past three years, and that Carfora can prove it, he (Zullo) would "resign."

But, Zullo added, if Carfora couldn't prove it, than Zullo thought it would be only fair that Carfora should "withdraw as a mayoral candidate."

Carfora responded that he had no intention of resigning.

Zullo said his own records indicate that the actual retainers he and his firm have received from the town the past three years are closer to $110,000 - per year - or a total of $330,000 for the three-year period that Carfora referrred to.

Reached for further comment Friday, Zullo elaborated:

“Councilman Carfora's claims about my fees were wildly inaccurate, inflamatory, and offensive.

“My vendor report, which is publicly available right in the Finance office, indicates I earned $269,233.44 for the period from 7/1/15 to 10/5/18 (3.3 years) - the exact period on Mr. Carfora's report. My partner, the Town's land use attorney, earned $147,000 over the same span. Finally, our firm billed an additional $171,789.45 in net fees outside of our retainer. In total, our firm was paid $588,023.19 for that 3.3 year period.

“Councilman Carfora made a wild spectacle of the meeting in accusing me of personally making $1.05 million dollars. In fact, he was off by $735,000, or over 70%, in calculating my personal wages.

“It's election season and candidate-Councilman Carfora injected dirty, negative, mudslinging into our last meeting. He also demonstrated, in recklessly over reporting my personal wages by over 70% that he is wildly unprepared to keep track of the Town's $90 million dollar budget. If he were elected and subsequently made a 70% error in our $90 million dollar budget, our Town would be bankrupt.

“I look forward to the next Town Council meeting, to presenting a full accounting of my department's finances, and to receiving Councilman Carfora's public apology, which he assured me I would receive if his numbers turned out to be inaccurate,” Zullo said.

Zullo shared with Patch what he says are the accurate legal fees that have been spent.

Carfora answered he would like to see an itemized listing of all the legal fees charged to the town.

In a follow-up conversation with Patch, Carfora said: "The information I presented came right off the Finance Department's computer system with the various accounts where legal expenses were paid out to the tune of over $2.6 million."

Carfora said his intention wasn't to attack Zullo personally.

"Unfortunately, due to the facts that emotions ran high, I was unable to convey my true intentions by bringing this to the forefront. I was not there to attack any of the individual law firms themselves.

"The point I wanted to make was we spend way to much money on defending the actions of Mayor (Joseph) Maturo's adminisration and particularly his irrational decisions, poor judgement and bad behavior.

Carfora added: “I expect that as a result of me asking these types of hard questions about the shortcomings of the Maturo administration that I will be attacked both personally and professionally.”

But Carfora insisted he won’t be deterred.

"The taxpayers want answers," Carfora said. "I will continue to ask those hard questions."