McNeil still with the city

Joe McNeil's law firm is still work for the city of Burlington as John Briggs a Free Press Staff Writer report in the artical below. Again, Kiss fails the city of Burlington again for spending our money. He has resigned and still getting our money. This is wrong, what is wrong with Kiss he is not thinking at all.

City Still has confidence in McNeil

Despite resignation attoney's firm doing work for Burlington
The law firm of Joseph McNeil, who resigned as city attorney for Burlington after admitting a close relationship with a city consultant, continues to receive considerable payments for city legal work.


City officials plan no change in that arrangement despite a court decision this month that revealed a second relationship between McNeil and a city official and found that McNeil did nothing to head off conflicts of interest represented by the two relationships.
Burlington has paid the law firm of McNeil, Leddy and Sheahan more than $599,000 since McNeil resigned in early April 2007, city records indicate.Mayor Bob Kiss said last week the city has received good value for the money and will continue to use McNeil and other attorneys from the firm. The mayor said the judicial finding has not changed his view.
The Burlington Free Press sued in Washington Superior Court to force the release of a number of e-mails exchanged on the city's computer system between McNeil and two women. Superior Court Judge Brian Grearson released his decision earlier this month.
McNeil resigned following disclosure in the Free Press of his relationship with zoning consultant Owiso Makuku. McNeil, who is married, formed a relationship with her when she worked in the Planning and Zoning Department and then arranged for her to work for him on the city's zoning rewrite at approximately double her rate of city pay.
Makuku submitted her hourly work records to McNeil, who approved them for payment.Simultaneously, Grearson wrote in his decision, McNeil had a close relationship with Karen Wingate, the former assistant to Mayor Peter Clavelle's chief administrative officer, Brendan Keleher. After Keleher resigned in fall 2005, Wingate became the interim CAO and held that position until the Kiss administration took office in April 2006.
Makuku could not be reached for comment. Wingate did not respond to a request for comment.Grearson based his opinion on his review of more than 1,500 e-mails sought by the Free Press. The e-mails were between McNeil and Makuku and between McNeil and Wingate.
Grearson said the e-mails "would lead a reasonable person to believe" that McNeil had "a close personal relationship of a romantic nature for an extended period of time" with both Makuku and Wingate. His relationship with Wingate, Grearson said, extended to the period when she headed the city's financial office.
Grearson said those relationships created a conflict of interest for McNeil as he provided legal guidance for the city.The judge did not release e-mails sought by the Free Press, citing the likelihood they would be embarrassing to McNeil, Makuku and Wingate if they were made public.
Neither Makuku nor Wingate works for the city.In his resignation letter, McNeil apologized for what he called a "lapse of judgment" that created an "appearance of a conflict," but strongly defended the quality of Makuku's work. In an e-mail Friday to the Free Press, McNeil said that in his work on the zoning ordinance, "I applied the same pride of workmanship I had applied over the 37 years I was the city's chief legal officer."
Keleher told the Free Press in 2007 that he had not been aware of McNeil's relationship with Makuku, and former Mayor Peter Clavelle declined comment. This week both declined to comment for this article.
Grearson said he could find no indication in the e-mails he examined that McNeil "took any significant steps to mitigate any conflicts of interest related to these relationships" or that city officials did. Grearson noted that all three individuals held "important positions" in city government.
Kiss said McNeil's firm has had two contracts with the city since his resignation, both reviewed by the Board of Finance and the City Council.Those contracts were accepted, he said, "clearly because of the skills Joe brings to this position and the long history and experience he has."
He said McNeil had "disclosed he had a close relationship with Owiso that could create an appearance of a conflict of interest, and he resigned." Kiss added that an independent audit of the billing for Makuku's contract, which paid her more than $213,000 from November 2004 to early 2007 and provided her with health insurance, revealed no billing problems.
"Out of this," Kiss said, "what we've continued to do is appreciate Joe's forthrightness in this ... situation."McNeil acknowledged the relationship with Makuku after inquiries by the Free Press. He did not publicly acknowledge the relationship with Wingate. In his e-mail Friday to the Free Press he noted he was not a party in the Free Press' e-mail suit and said he would "not engage in any discussion or debate (of) any aspect" of the case.
The independent audit cited by Kiss confirmed that the city had paid the bills for Makuku submitted by McNeil and reconciled some bills with meetings both attended.
Kiss said Oct. 10 he was unsure whether the Human Resources Department has changed or clarified the policy on personal relationships between city workers. He said the city relies on "self-disclosure" to allow the city to adjust working relationships to avoid potential conflicts of interest.
He said in the case of McNeil's acknowledgement of his relationship with Makuku, "there is room to judge whether that was timely or not."McNeil's resignation and the departure of Makuku and Wingate, he said, "in some respects," made questions of a conflict of interest a moot point. Kiss said he had no plans to consult the state's Professional Responsibility Board or "pursue anything in regard to (McNeil's) professional conduct."
Figures provided by the Clerk-Treasurer's Office in 2007 showed that the firm of McNeil, Leddy and Sheahan was paid a total of $2,616,959 by the city (including work for Burlington Electric Department and the School District) for fiscal years 2003 midway through fiscal year 2007. The firm was paid $602,969 in fiscal year 2005 and $585,236 in fiscal year 2006.Contact John Briggs at 660-1863 or jbriggs@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
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