What’s the 422?

Limerick Township paid former township manager Edward Fink and two ex-supervisors $170,000 to settle a six-year legal dispute over a severance package, according to legal documents.

Although some details of the payment became public at the May 14 township meeting, Limerick recently released the January 2008 settlement agreement to What’s the 422 under Pennsylvania’s Right to Know law.

Background: A new slate of supervisors had taken office in January 2002. One of their first actions was hiring Walter Zaremba as township manager. Fink, who started in the Limerick Public Works Department in 1986, was “terminated” by outgoing supervisors Tom Neafcy, Glenn Holcombe and Greg Richardson, according to court records.

Fink’s employment contract as township manager was to run from December 1996 to September 2002, records show.

Neafcy, who is again running for supervisor this November, lost his seat in the 2001 election. He says the incoming board refused to pay Fink the $134,406.57 in severance money he was contractually owed. Neafcy and Holcombe split $170,000 with Fink, according to the 2008 agreement. It is unclear why Richardson – a current planning commission member – did not receive a portion of the settlement.

Richardson is listed as a defendant in this suit.

Litigation dragged on for six years between these two groups of current and former elected Limerick officials. In late 2007, former and current supervisors David Kane, Renee Chesler, Elaine DeWan and Frank Kotch approved a deal to end the litigation.  Supervisor Ken Sperring Jr., said he did not attend that meeting. (Minutes for 2007 meetings are not available on the township Web site.)

An extra $35,000

Neafcy, who spoke to a reporter on-the-record about the settlement last month, declined to comment on the deal when reached by phone Friday. He declined to explain the $35,000 difference between the $170,000 official settlement and the $205,000 payout figure cited by both he and Chesler during and after the May 14 public meeting.

“I have a confidentiality agreement and can’t discuss it,” Neafcy said.

Chesler, who lost to Neafcy in the Republican primary election May 19, said the additional $35,000 came from other insurance companies.

“No individuals involved paid anything directly. It was all between insurance companies,” she wrote in an e-mail.

According to Chesler, the insurance payout made sense because “the insurance reserve was higher than the settled amount and we saved on our insurance premiums.”

As for the court struggle, the settlement agreement requires all involved persons to drop current and future legal claims related to the Fink issue. Former supervisors Jeffrey Cusamano, Thomas DiBello, Francis Grant, Joseph Greco, Albert Herr and Frederick Fidler, as well as Sperring and Zaremba, are listed as defendants in court records.

Confusion over access

While employed with The Mercury, this reporter requested the Fink settlement agreement on two separate occasions. Both faxes were acknowledged by the township as received.

The Jan. 3, 2008, request asked for “the written settlement agreement for Edward Fink, former twp. manager.”

The Nov. 13, 2008, Right to Know request sought “all settlement agreements entered into by Limerick Twp. with former employees for 2006, 2007, and 2008.”

Limerick Solicitor Joe McGrory said last December that the only settlement agreement on file was one for former employee Karen Willman. She received $18,387.20 after suing over her termination, according to her settlement.

In recent conversations and e-mails, McGrory has contended that settlement “payments” were requested by the press, not the actual agreements.

“I was never asked for the Fink settlement,” McGrory wrote in an e-mail. “You asked for severance payments for  employees terminated by this Board and the Township sent you the Wilman agreement.”

Township Manager Dan Kerr attributed further delays to the fact that signed copies of Fink’s settlement rested with the insurance company’s attorneys and not Limerick Township or McGrory.