Everett has paid 21 different outside law firms more than $6 million since July 2023, Council President Stephanie Smith told the budget committee on Wednesday, May 20, and KP Law alone has collected more than $3 million of it. The figures, which Smith said she pulled from finance reports, landed in the middle of City Solicitor Jaclyn Munson’s first budget presentation, in which she asked the council to fund a new deputy city solicitor so the city can stop sending routine work out the door.
“We spent $6,000,000 in three years. That’s $2,000,000 a year almost,” Smith said. “We’re asking for $150,000 to fund a person, I think, is incredible, to get some of that money back.”
Law department: an audit back to 2008
Munson, hired this winter, said she has already brought seven or eight cases back in house and has retained outside counsel to audit her own office, “preferably back to 2008,” reviewing every legal opinion, outside counsel bill and contract so the city understands its exposure. Not all outside counsel contracts were centralized in the law department before she arrived, she said, and she has told departments that only she, with the mayor’s authorization, may sign them. Her budget rises 13 percent overall, but she said it cuts operational cost by 38 percent, because salaried attorneys “can work as many hours as we need to get things done without cost going over,” while private firms bill $200 to $800 an hour in six-minute increments. A new assistant city solicitor, Mark Assad, a South Shore prosecutor, starts June 1. The city has also switched its insurance broker to HUB International after bidding the work.
Councilor Peter Pietrantonio asked whether the $100,000 litigation line could be halved to offset the deputy’s salary. Munson said much of that money will go to the audit and to specialized cases the city should still send out, such as eminent domain. Pietrantonio’s motion to cut it to $50,000 died for lack of a second. Councilor Stephanie Martins, who as president led the fight to restrict outside counsel spending, called Munson “a breath of fresh air” and asked whether the council would still see contracts before firms are retained; Munson said there are “legally permissible ways” to share that information with the council as a client.
Veterans director leaving after months on the job
Erika Corbelli, hired by former Mayor Carlo DeMaria at $80,000, told the committee she has resigned effective June 10. The budget still carries the $87,418 her predecessor earned. Martins called the veterans director the lowest-paid department head in the city and said it is “disrespectful” to expect young talent to stay at that pay. Corbelli said the department has spent more than $15,000 on flags since January and suggested a single veterans memorial wall rather than new street-corner squares, which Councilor Wayne Matewsky said is already being discussed for Joseph Warren Park. No one in the room could say how many veterans live in Everett. “If people don’t step forward to let us know that they are a veteran, there’s no way of keeping track,” Corbelli said.
IT: “a good 15 to 20 years” behind
Interim IT director Neil Ellis, brought in after the previous chief information officer left, said he was “taken aback by the state of IT in Everett. It’s, you know, a good 15 to 20 years. And that includes hardware, software, procedures.” There are no written policies, he said, and the city has had three major outages, including phones and servers, in his first two months. Much of the software on city servers and computers is expired or outdated, so the city will have to start paying for licenses it is using. Budget Director Margaret Micherda said the department has roughly half a million dollars in carried-forward encumbrances that the auditor is cleaning up.
The council’s own budget
Smith proposed cutting the vacant legislative aide job from 35 hours to 24, saving $17,763, and eliminating the $7,500 part-time messenger line because the new assistant city clerk, Mike Mangan, is required by charter to deliver agendas. Matewsky and Councilor Anthony DiPierro objected on behalf of the former councilor who has held the messenger job since 2021. “He hasn’t missed a meeting, to my knowledge, in four years,” Matewsky said. Councilor Guerline Alcy Jabouin pushed back: “Let’s vote based on the tax dollars, not on feelings, please.” Martins’ motion to trim the cut to $10,000 so the messenger could be kept failed 5-6. Pietrantonio’s motion to cut the councilors’ own $44,000 reimbursable expense line to $33,000, seconded by Smith, also failed 5-6. The budget was accepted as presented with Pietrantonio the only recorded no. DiPierro said a report of councilor expenses, including National League of Cities and Massachusetts Municipal Association conference costs, should be made public.
Clerk and elections
City Clerk Sergio Cornelio said his office will return $8,000 to $10,000, generates about $600,000 a year in license fees, handled about 1,100 public records requests last year and is switching records vendors to Laserfiche and a new FOIA portal. New agenda software for every board and commission is targeted for September and no later than January. Smith renewed her objection to the clerk serving as chair of the Election Commission while a new elections director is about to start; Cornelio said the seat was created by home rule petition and only another petition could remove it. Councilor Michele Capone tallied Cornelio’s pay at about $145,000 plus a $10,500 election chair stipend, an RAO stipend and $5,000 to $8,000 a year as a justice of the peace. Jabouin’s motion to cut $20,000 from the clerk’s salary line drew no second, and she asked to be recorded as opposed. Elections will return about $100,000 because there was no preliminary this year.
Also May 20
- Elder services director Dale Palma said the senior center bought its van and is hiring two part-time drivers for a loop from Whittier Drive, Glendale Towers, 15 Summer Street, School Street, 66 Main and St. Therese’s to the Connolly Center, and wants to open two evenings a week. The ARPA-funded senior lunch program that serves 300 to 400 residents will wind down as the money runs out.
- Library director Kevin Sheehan will return $27,650 and must expand Parlin Saturday hours from 10 to 2 to 9 to 5 to keep state certification. The libraries added 1,444 patrons and 7,095 items this year.
- Health director Sabrina Firicano said 21 of 22 school nurse jobs are filled for about 7,000 students, field trips are back, and the health and wellness coordinator and equity officer positions were cut to focus on nursing. Micherda said non-union staff hired before 2026 get 3 percent raises and a classification study is under way because “our employees, in a lot of departments, are underpaid.”
