SCRANTON — The Scranton School Board narrowly approved a new legal counsel for the district.
Directors voted 5-3 at a special meeting Thursday to hire Joyce, Carmody and Moran as the district’s general and special education legal counsel beginning May 1.
Directors Tara Yanni, Catherine Fox and Marie Merkel voted against hiring the Pittston-based law firm, while board President Ty Holmes, Vice President Danielle Chesek and Directors Bob Casey, Tom Borthwick and Sean McAndrew cast votes in favor of it.
The district will pay $200 an hour for a partner from the firm, $180 an hour for an associate and $130 for a paralegal through 2027, with rates increasing by $10 for 2028.
The firm’s agreement with the district for general legal counsel also specifies the district pay retainer fees to the firm of $60,000 this year, $65,000 next year and $70,000 for 2027. The fee will be paid in monthly installments and cover phone calls and email correspondence between the firm, the district’s central administration and board members on nonlitigation issues, weekly virtual meetings between administrators and the firm, and attendance at all regularly scheduled board meetings, informational sessions and accompanying executive sessions.
Directors were scheduled to vote on the legal services at Monday’s regular board meeting but delayed both votes after the proposed contract was changed and board members weren’t able to review it in time for the meeting.
Joyce, Carmody & Moran and King, Spry, Herman, Freund & Faul of Bethlehem, the district’s current firm, both submitted proposals for legal services.
Board members hired Joyce, Carmody & Moran as labor counsel in 2018, but shifted those responsibilities to the firm Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams in 2020. The board has used King, Spry, Herman, Freund & Faul since 2022, when a Lackawanna County judge ordered the district to rebid its bus contract.
Before the vote, multiple directors commended the process for selecting a firm, saying it was done transparently.
Chesek commended Holmes for ensuring the process ran smoothly and acknowledged the work that John Freund and Jonathan Huerta of King, Spry, Herman, Freund & Faul have done for the district. Holmes echoed the sentiment, saying the firm helped the district during a difficult time.
Borthwick and Casey commended their colleagues for choosing a local firm that is invested in the city.
Fox expressed concern about there not being a start and end date in the contract.
Superintendent Erin Keating, Ed.D., said school code states the board can end the contract at any time. Noah Katz, the special counsel working with the district for the legal request-for-proposals process, said the motion sets the contract start date at May 1, and there is technically no end date.
Yanni said there was “an obvious difference” between the two firms and is disappointed staff and students won’t have access to the resources the current firm has. She said asking questions resulted in a lower cost for the contract.
Resident Joe Gilhooley questioned directors why they didn’t have the most recent contract before Monday and said he wants to keep the district’s legal counsel local.
“It’s just disturbing to me that this huge school district … is what I consider somewhat incompetent,” he said. “It’s time that you be transparent.”
Keating said she issued a privileged document that outlined changes to the contract, but it wasn’t forwarded to all board members.
“I should have followed up and made sure that document was forwarded properly,” she said. “I’ve already put steps in place to make sure in the future that doesn’t happen again.”
Resident Barbara O’Malley reiterated that she feels Joyce, Carmody and Moran is meddling in the Scranton City Council race and asked anyone who received contributions from the firm or has anything to do with the council race to recuse themselves from the vote.
McAndrew said that some people had been focused on assuring certain parties didn’t get contracts or positions, and that having a special counsel for the RFP process had cost the district more than $8,000.
“This situation and these decisions has created an atmosphere on the board … that is unprofessional,” McAndrew said, adding that energy needs to be directed toward addressing other issues in the district.