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WARREN -- After hiring a law firm to advise on American Rescue Plan Act spending, Trumbull County commissioners on Wednesday petitioned the county common pleas court to exempt those costs from a statutory limit on the amount commissioners can spend on outside legal counsel in one year.
Commissioners voted in late February to hire Baker, Dublikar, Beck, Wiley & Matthews to provide legal counsel regarding the spending of the county's allotted $38 million in federal ARP funds.
The firm will charge commissioners $170 per hour for work done by a partner, $155 per hour for work done by an associate and $90 for paralegals. The firm's pay will come out of the ARP funds, according to Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa, who said legal services is an allowed use of the money.
Per the Ohio Revised Code, commissioners have a threshold on what they can spend on outside counsel in one calendar year -- they cannot spend more than the county prosecutor's annual salary, according to county Assistant Prosecutor Bill Danso.
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins makes $148,151 per year, county auditor's office records show.
By filing an application with the Trumbull County Court of Common Pleas, money spent on legal counsel from Baker Dublikar for ARP purposes won't count towards the commissioners' outside counsel spending limit. Danso said the action is "very routine."
Cantalamessa said it was "more of a precautionary move than anything."
"When you couple all the lawsuits that we've incurred over the past 15 months, unfortunately, and just the normal everyday routine workers' comp cases or specific legal advice -- when you add in the ARP aspect to it … the last thing we want to do is go over that (limit)," Cantalamessa said.
Baker Dublikar has been working with other area communities, including the Trumbull County Council of Governments and Howland. In February, when commissioners interviewed the North Canton law firm in anticipation of hiring it for ARP purposes, members said five partners would be available to do work for the county and other communities it represents.
At that time, Commissioner Frank Fuda said commissioners wanted to hire a firm to make sure everything was done legally and would not cause a problem if the county was audited.
Commissioner Niki Frenchko said she began asking last spring for the county to hire a law firm to advise it on use of the ARP money.
Commissioners have discussed many possible uses for county ARP funds, including county sanitary water and sewer projects but formally have committed little of the money. In March, commissioners allocated $2 million to continuing the CARES 4 Trumbull Small Business Relief Fund, a grant program for local businesses adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and $1 million to create a revolving loan fund for county businesses.
Local governments have until 2024 to commit ARP funds and until 2026 to spend them, according to the National Association of Counties.
Wednesday's meeting agenda included a request to discuss ARP spending, which Frenchko mentioned at a previous meeting. The meeting, however, was adjourned abruptly by Cantalamessa and Fuda after it broke down into an argument, and there was no such discussion or public comment.