Point Boro Councilmen Clash Over Possible Attorney Hire

Point Borough Council may hire a law firm to help collect Superstorm Sandy insurance money, but the Democrats want to look at additional firms before voting.

Point Borough Republican Councilmen Bob Sabosik and Bill Borowsky tried in vain at the Tuesday night council meeting at Borough Hall to convince their Demcratic colleagues to hire William F. "Chip" Merlin Jr. of the Merlin Law Group, based in Florida.

Sabosik said Merlin has been successful for more than 20 years getting additional insurance money for towns that have suffered through natural disasters.

The Merlin website says: "Since 1983, Chip Merlin has served as a plaintiff's attorney with a focus on Commercial and Residential Property Insurance Claim Disputes and Bad Faith Insurance litigation."

"He's called the Babe Ruth of hurricanes," Sabosik said.

"He would not be taking any money from the town, he would take it from the insurance payment," Sabosik said, adding later that he earns a 10 percent finder's fee if he recoups insurance reimbursement. "If he doesn't get anything for us, he doesn't get paid."

UPDATE: Merlin is a member of the New Jersey Bar Assocation, as well as Florida and Texas and a few other states listed on the website, according to Kevin Cate, who works with Merlin and wrote to Patch on May 24. The firm also has attorneys in New Jersey, including in a Red Bank office.Also, the law firm of Bathgate, Wegener and Wolf, based in Lakewood, is working as co-counsel with the Merlin firm in its representation of Jersey Shore towns impacted by Sandy and seeking additional insurance reimbursement (more on Bathgate towards end of story).

Can Merlin's magic make an insurance denial disappear?

Merlin would be trying to get insurance reimbursement for the Borough's clean-up and debris removal costs in Sandy's aftermath, said Borough Administrator David Maffei in an interview on Wednesday morning.

So far, the Borough has received only $8,000 in insurance reimbursement, Maffei said. All other claims have, so far, been denied by an insurance carrier which is part of the Ocean County Joint Insurance Fund (JIF). The Borough, along with many other towns, self-insures with JIF, which is not affiliated with county government.

The insurance carrier blamed the storm on God and said they're not responsible for covering the loss.

"They said it was an act of God and they claim that's not covered," Maffei said. "FEMA is saying that towns and residents should appeal any insurance claim denials, so that's what we'd have an attorney do."

Attorney Christopher Dasti, who was sitting in for Borough Attorney Jerry Dasti, his father, at the meeting, said afterwards that Merlin travels the country working highly successfully for towns, helping them get additional insurance money after they go through natural disasters.

"He travels all over the country doing this, he has his own plane," Dasti said, emphatically.

Merlin was suggested in an April 29 letter Jerry Dasti sent to all council members, Sabosik said in an interview on Wednesday.

A Back and Forth About How Fast to Move Forward

During the meeting, Councilmen Chris Leitner said he would like council to first go through its standard process of taking "Requests for Proposals" or "RFPs" from other law firms.

"Let's see if there are other firms that do this," Leitner said. "There may be others."

"This guy has been doing this for more than 20 years," Sabosik said.

"But we do have an RFP process," countered Leitner.

"This is the first I got the details on this," said Democratic Councilman Chris Goss, indicating he would also prefer getting additional proposals through the RFP process before voting.

"His credentials are second to none," said Borowsky, who told his colleagues they should have attended a 90 minute presentation Merlin gave a couple of weeks ago at Jerry Dasti's law firm office in Forked River.

About 25 officials from various towns attended, Sabosik said.

"You should have been there, this guy is great," Borowsky told the other councilmen.

Dasti had invited Mayor William Schroeder and all council members, but only Sabosik and Borowsky attended. Schroeder had originally intended to go, but had to attend a different meeting.

"Well maybe we should have him do a presentation here," Leitner said.

Ultimately, council members, with Goss casting the lone no vote, agreed to ask Merlin to do a presentation at the next council meeting, which is on June 18, and to have Dasti draft a retainer agreement that would set the percentage fee Merlin would collect if he did recoup insurance reimbursement. The drafting of the retainer agreement does not obligate the Borough to hire Merlin. (Councilmember Toni DePaola was absent.)

Meanwhile, Sabosik told Leitner he did not understand why he wouldn't hire Merlin on the spot.

"This guy is the best," Sabosik told Leitner.

"Dozens of firms say they're the best," Leitner replied.

"I did my research, I researched five other firms," Sabosik said.

"Who are they?" Leitner asked.

"You want me to tell you the names?" Sabosik asked, incredulously.

"Yes," Leitner replied, but Sabosik never named the firms.

And the Other Names Are....

After the meeting, when Patch asked Sabosik for the names, he said he did not have them with him and he would provide them on Wednesday. Late Wednesday afternoon, Sabosik called, said he had been in a meeting all day in New York City for his own business, and he provided the names:

• Pasternack, Tilker, Ziegler, Walsh, Stanton and Romano, which is a "huge law firm in New York City," Sabosik said. "I thought it may be too big for our liking." (Based on its website, the law firm specializes in workers' compensation.)

• Voss, based in Texas, which had "a lot of categories and sub-categories" of different types of claims work they do, but they did not appear to specialize in recouping insurance money for municipalities, Sabosik said.

• Sutliff and Stout "which is doing some work up here, for Sandy, but they don't appear to be a specialist" in recouping money for towns, he said. (The website indicates they specialize in personal injury.)

• Jones Day, a New York City law firm which "is doing some work around here, they seem pretty good and seem to be a pretty large firm," Sabosik said.

• Louis Berger, a global consulting firm that works for public and private entities in their efforts to get reimbursement from FEMA and insurance companies, is currently working with Point Beach primarily to help them get FEMA reimbursement.

"I looked at Louis Berger, but they seem to be more of an engineering firm, not a law firm," Sabosik said. He said he had not known about Louis Berger until Patch asked him about the firm after Tuesday's meeting.

When asked what percentage finder's fee the other firms are charging, Sabosik said, "They're all pretty much the same."

When asked why he had not brought the names of the other firms with him to the meeting, Sabosik said he forgot.

When asked if he had spoken to any of Merlin's municipal clients to find out if they felt Merlin had recouped funds that otherwise would not have been recouped, Sabosik said he had not.

"But when we went to the meeting, there were people around us who had who had heard about good results," he said, adding later that Merlin's website lists such achievements.

Does the Bathgate connection matter?

Sabosik said during the meeting that Merlin has an affiliation with the law firm of Bathgate, Wegener and Wolf, in Lakewood. He explained on Wednesday that Bathgate's firm is providing "support staff" for Merlin as he works for Bay Head, Mantoloking and a few other local towns to help them recoup insurance money.

For decades, the principles of the Bathgate firm have been consistent, large donors to the Republican party from Ocean County to Washington D.C.

When asked on Wednesday if the affiliation with the politically influential Bathgate firm has anything to do with he and other local Republicans pushing for hiring Merlin, Sabosik said, "Absolutely not. This is not political at all. It has to do with who's best for the town. Bayonne is a Democratic town and they went with him."

After the meeting, Sabosik said that Schroeder had asked all council members to find names of law firms to possibly hire to go after insurance money.

"Isn't that right, Bill?" Sabosik asked Schroeder.

"Yes, we wanted to see who we could hire, but where would you look? So you came up with this name, this is good," Schroeder said.

The Borough is still working on its application to request FEMA funds, so it has not received any FEMA reimbursement so far beyond an initial $40,000 to help reimburse the cost of the clean-up and debris removal in Sandy's immediate aftermath, Maffei said. He said he expects the Borough to ultimately request "very roughly, well over $1.5 million" from FEMA.