That's what one expert told me when I told this expert how much we had paid to Duane Morris. Never in 20 years had this person seen a fee that high. And the person I was talking to does big projects. I mean big projects. I've got links to a number of State Agency Reports below on projects (no this person didn't do all these projects, but this person works on projects like these) in just the last 6 months that are over $250 million below. This person told me that you wouldn't see fees as high as $400,000 on any of these, and some of these actually had opposition.
Our project was a layup in the open court. There is no way to justify the fee we paid. And no, I still haven't heard back from Julia Rietz about all those State's Attorneys that highly recommended this firm or with a list of their previous work that would justify hiring them.
Children's Memorial Hospital, 1 Billion!!
Edward Plainfield Hospital, $249 Mill
University of Chicago, $785 Mill
Silver Cross Hospital, $397 Mill
The News-Gazette has covered the issue of Duane Morris fees.
In particular see
There's almost no accounting for some high legal fees
News-Gazette, The (Champaign-Urbana, IL) - September 16, 2007
Author: TOM KACICH
Michael Fuerst
Shameful. What a waste of money the County could use. Shame on Reitz for recommending the group and on the board for approving them. I don't understand why more residents of Champaign County are not "up in arms" over this disregard for the taxpayers money. I don't want my hard earned tax money "blown" on fees like this when someone inhouse or a local attorney could have done the job.
What a waste of money the County could use. Shame on Reitz for recommending the group and on the board for approving them. I don't understand why more residents of Champaign County are not "up in arms" over this disregard for the taxpayers money.
But did Rietz recommend them? It sounds like they were selected for the CON before she took office and they've since been fired from representing Champaign County in the litigation.
Rietz did not hire them in the first instance, but she has continued their employment, even after it became clear in November 2006 that they were not capable in this area. Further, she has publicly defended them.
Rietz did not hire them in the first instance, but she has continued their employment, even after it became clear in November 2006 that they were not capable in this area. Further, she has publicly defended them.
So it seems like the real issue here is whether she should have removed them in the middle of the CON and given the work to someone else, since she didn't initially select them and has worked to get them fired from the litigation stuff. It seems like anything she did about the CON could have been criticized - if she'd dumped them and engaged someone else, people would have said that we lost all that money we paid to them and it would have been worse if the other firm had also been a dud.
Actually, Duane Morris had already completed the work on the CON by the time Rietz took office. After she took office we had separate issues come up regarding the allocation of beds and two modifications to our CON. Plus the litigation.
And no she wouldn't have been criticized if she had dumped them since she could have compared their outrageous fee on the CON to any of a number of other firms and convinced the public that she had made an intelligent choice.
Give it up Wayward. You know it would really be refreshing if just once someone in our county government would step up and admit it when they screw up. Instead we get the endless stream of apologists stepping forward to deny anything improper ever occurred. It is plainly obvious from the defensiveness Rietz has diplayed that she is blatantly aware of her culpability in this matter. So give it up already. Seriously.
Give it up Wayward. You know it would really be refreshing if just once someone in our county government would step up and admit it when they screw up. Instead we get the endless stream of apologists stepping forward to deny anything improper ever occurred. It is plainly obvious from the defensiveness Rietz has diplayed that she is blatantly aware of her culpability in this matter. So give it up already. Seriously.
I'd agree that Duane Morris was overpriced and not very good. However, given that they'd been hired for the CON before Rietz even took office, it doesn't seem fair to blame the entire fiasco on her.
I agree with you wayward that she doesn't deserve all the blame. but she deserves over half the blame, and the fact that she continues to apologize for them and attack those who question them is wrong.