Montgomery County, PA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 8, 2009

 

 

DA FERMAN FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST COUNTY COMMISSIONERS   

  

            

Today, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, on behalf of the Office of the District Attorney, filed a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief regarding a law passed by County Commissioners James Matthews and Joseph Hoeffel on April 2, 2009 which claims supervisory authority over members of the District Attorney’s Office staff (see legislation entitled Ethics Ordinance 09-01).  Today’s Complaint requests that the Court of Common Pleas review the Ordinance, declare the Ordinance to be beyond the powers delegated to the Commissioners under state law, and enjoin enforcement of the Ordinance.

 

As an independently elected official, the District Attorney believes that she alone has the responsibility and authority to hire, fire and supervise her employees.  The District Attorney is not willing to relinquish these important responsibilities to other elected officials, including the County Commissioners

 

Before deciding how to proceed, District Attorney Ferman consulted with independent counsel, Richard Sprague, Esquire. Mr. Sprague served as First Assistant District Attorney in the County of Philadelphia under former Philadelphia District Attorney Arlen Specter. After consulting with counsel, it was determined the County Commissioners lacked legal authority to regulate the conduct or behavior of Row Office employees, including the regulation of political activity which the Commissioners attempted to accomplish under the name of “Ethics Ordinance”.

 

Of particular note, the Commissioners’ political ban applied to only 126 of the employees who serve the County of Montgomery. Of those 126 employees, 53 are employed by independently elected Row Officers. Eighty-two (82%) of the Row Office employees that the Commissioners now seek to supervise work for the District Attorney. In sum, employees of District Attorney Ferman represent 35% of all the county employees affected by the Commissioners, and 82% of all the Row Officer employees targeted.  This includes every staff attorney in the District Attorney’s office. By comparison, when the Commissioners had the option of supervising employees of the Public Defender’s Office (an office that falls squarely under their jurisdiction) they removed every Assistant Public Defender except one from the list of employees covered by their ordinance.  The Ordinance does not affect any other county Row Office, including the County Solicitor’s Office or Public Defenders Office, in such a significant and encompassing manner.

 

Richard A. Sprague and Thomas A Sprague, Sprague & Sprague, Philadelphia, PA as well as Michael D. Marino, Esquire, Blue Bell, PA, former Chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners and former Montgomery County District Attorney will represent the District Attorney’s Office during this proceeding.

 

     Approved for release:

 

     Risa Vetri Ferman