Thursday, January 19, 2012

PPS/ legal services

On another post Anonymous wrote:

"What does PPS pay Weiss each year? PPS "outsources" many "jobs" to other law firms. The tax assessment issue that resulted in delaying the new values a year, was handled by an outside law firm. How much do we pay law firms each year? I'll bet it is alot."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Attorney Paul Lalley who handled this matter for PPS, is an attorney in Bruce Campbell's law firm. Attorney Campbell used to be "Special Labor Counsel" on the Board's negotiating committee for the collective bargaining agreement. It seems like Weiss and PPS take care of certain people. Judy Johnston and her consulting contracts is another prime example.

Anonymous said...

Pittsburgh, if you want to understand what is happening and will be happening to your schools, read The New Political Economy of Urban Education by Pauline Lipman.

Anonymous said...

Trib.update on Fadzen

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_777751.html

Anonymous said...

Here's another outside law firm handling the Board's case against Fadzen. This firm has ties to Weiss through Montour HS. When Weiss resigned as their solicitor, he recommended this law firm to replace him.

If Weiss is PPS' solicitor, why is so much work subcontracted out to other firms? Does PPS have so much "legal" work that one firm can't handle it all?

Anonymous said...

Isn't Weiss' contract as a solicitor in part a monthly retainer, with hourly rates over and above that paid for tax appeals and special education due process?

The math here is pretty simple: farm out as much work as you can while still pocketing 100% of the monthly retainer, while focusing on the firm's volume business, municipal tax appeals.

Langley Parent said...

Wow, so Weiss still gets paid even if he farms most of the Solicitor work out?

No wonder the reassessment was so important to him!

This way he can put all of the firm's resources to getting paid hourly working in the tax pieces, all the while still collecting the retainer, with PPS now paying twice.

Unreal.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how much his monthly retainer fee is?