{"id":2854,"date":"2025-10-16T00:20:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T00:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/2854\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T00:20:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T00:20:24","slug":"upper-darby-mayors-pick-for-new-solicitor-doesnt-sit-well-with-2-council-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/2854\/","title":{"rendered":"Upper Darby mayor’s pick for new solicitor doesn’t sit well with 2 council members"},"content":{"rendered":"

Upper Darby Mayor Ed Brown has chosen a new township solicitor over the objection of two Republicans on council.<\/p>\n

\"UpperUpper Darby Mayor Ed Brown<\/p>\n

At the most recent council meeting, it was announced the administration had chosen Clarke Gallagher Barbiero Amuso & Glassman Law<\/a> which has an office in Radnor.<\/p>\n

The company was formerly Randolph Clarke LLC based in Bucks and Montgomery counties. The name expansion occurred in November.<\/p>\n

According to its website, the firm represents numerous municipal and school district clients in Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware, Chester and Burlington counties.<\/p>\n

Delaware County clients include Collingdale and Aldan. The firm has also been legal advisers<\/a> for Delcora.<\/p>\n

Managing partner Michael Clarke has been a large donor to Montgomery County Democrats.<\/a><\/p>\n

The new solicitor comes after Kilkenny Law stepped down in January<\/a> after four years as Upper Darby solicitor.<\/p>\n

Sean Kilkenny said the decision to step aside was so that both his firm and Upper Darby could continue to prosper.<\/p>\n

He had faced criticism after decisions later led to lawsuits, a couple which have notably gone against the township. Kilkenny denied that the criticism was a factor in his stepping aside.<\/p>\n

Also at the council meeting, township Chief Administrative Officer Crandall Jones said the township sent out a request for qualifications to five law firms and three responded.<\/p>\n

Those firms were interviewed with the mayor and department heads present, and council members were invited.<\/p>\n

Jones said the proposal from Clarke Gallagher was for a monthly retainer of $6,000 per month.<\/p>\n

Hourly rates would be $195 for nonland development matters and $135 an hour for paralegals. Work requiring land development would be $245 per hour.<\/p>\n

Council will vote on the solicitor at a future meeting.<\/p>\n

Council member Brian Andruszko said he is concerned about the firm\u2019s involvement with free speech<\/a> issues while representing Pennsbury School District during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"Andruszko\"Andruszko<\/p>\n

Residents speaking at board meetings from December 2020 to June 2021 allegedly had their time cut short or their comments were deleted from the meetings minutes or video.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue with Mr. Clarke at Pennsbury Township regarding the free speech case \u2026 I think everybody is aware of the issues that we\u2019ve had ourselves here in Upper Darby with recent litigation,\u201d Andruszko said. \u201cI think that\u2019s a concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andruszko also had issues with statements Clarke has made about the Republican Party and questioned if he could be impartial on political issues he may need to rule on.<\/p>\n

He urged the administration to look for a different solicitor.<\/p>\n

Meaghan Wagner also questioned the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not political to me. This is a scary road is what I see it as,\u201d Wagner said.<\/p>\n

Brown said there is always going to be something that someone questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever we choose there is going to be somebody that has an issue,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI think you just have to make a decision, all things considered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI respect where you are coming from,\u201d he told Andruszko and Wagner.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: March 8, 2025 at 7:00 AM EST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Upper Darby Mayor Ed Brown has chosen a new township solicitor over the objection of two Republicans on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[212,182,139,28,210,147,149,148,150],"class_list":["post-2854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upper-darby","tag-delaware-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-dtd","tag-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby-headlines","tag-upper-darby-news","tag-upper-darby-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}