Does law firm pose conflict of interest for candidate?

By ADAM BEAM - abeam@thestate.com

City Council candidate Belinda Gergel’s husband has halted his legal work for Columbia, but his two law partners — Al Nickels and Carl Solomon — have formed a separate company to continue handling labor issues for the city.

Gergel, who is running for the District 3 council seat being vacated by Anne Sinclair, has promised that, if elected April 1, she will disqualify herself from any vote involving city business with Nickels & Solomon LLC — unless it has to do with the hiring and firing of the city manager.

The only employment issue that requires a vote by City Council is the hiring and firing of the city manager or city attorney, Nickels said. If that happens, Nickels and Solomon will most likely be involved.

“I don’t see why I would need to recuse myself from either one of those,” Gergel said. “If I can’t vote on the city manager, I don’t need to be on City Council.”

Brian Boyer, one of Gergel’s opponents, said he did not know whether Nickles & Solomon would be a conflict of interest for Gergel, but it “sure gives the appearance of impropriety.”

“It doesn’t really pass the smell test in my opinion,” Boyer said. “You know how partner sharing works. You do $10,000 work for the city of Orangeburg and I do $10,000 for city of Spartanburg, you’re going to get a cut of that Spartanburg work even if you didn’t work there.”

Reed Swearingen, also a candidate for District 3, said he thinks Gergel and her husband have the “utmost integrity.”

“Richard stopped work with the city as soon as Belinda became a candidate, and I think that was the right way to approach it,” he said.

If Gergel is elected, it wouldn’t be the first time a City Council member has a family member doing legal work for the city. Mayor Bob Coble’s brother-in-law, Dan McLeod, does bond work for the McNair Law Firm, which handles bond issues for the city.

McLeod has been doing bond work for the city since before Coble became mayor. Coble said it isn’t a conflict because McLeod is not in Coble’s household, which is the state criteria for a conflict.

Three attorneys now serve on City Council — Coble, at-large Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine, and District 2 Councilman E.W. Cromartie.

• Coble works for Nexsen Pruet, where he practices in health care, regulatory law and governmental representation.

The firm has more than 170 attorneys and has done work for the city before, including representing the Columbia Development Corp. and the Convention Visitors Bureau board. Coble recused himself from those votes.

Coble said Nexsen Pruet is not on retainer by the city, but works for the city from time to time.

• Cromartie, who specializes in employment law, said his firm has never represented the city. He has done some work for Benedict College and has recused himself from city matters involving the school.

• Devine’s firm, Jabber, Gray & Isaac, has not done work for the city, she said. She has recused herself twice while serving on council, both times when clients or former clients had an issue before the City Council.

Former City Councilman Hamilton Osborne resigned his seat in 2006 because of a conflict of interest involving his firm, Haynesworth Sinkler Boyd, and their work for USC, which was working with the city to develop Innovista.

But Boyer said issues like Gergel’s law firm working for the city so long raise a broader issue of transparency.

“I just think (when) there’s an almost 20-year relationship (that) is almost indicative of the status quo that has gotten us into a lot of financial problems.”

Richard Gergel, president of Gergel, Nickles & Solomon law firm, has worked with the city since 1991 handling its labor issues. Partners Nickles and Solomon have handled most of the work in the past five years, but Gergel was called in for particularly sensitive matters, including the firing of former city manager Leona Plaugh in 2003.

In a letter to Coble in October, Richard Gergel said he would no longer work for the city but his two law partners would form a separate firm to continue working for the city.

Richard Gergel, Nickles and Solomon all still work together. But any work done for the city is billed under “Nickels & Solomon LLC,” which is separate from the main law firm.

Richard Gergel said he would receive no profit from the separate firm, but some of the money would pay for the office operations for the main firm.

Any city money earned by Nickles and Solomon will pay for only their share of the firm’s operating expenses, Richard Gergel said.

“I will make no money on it,” Richard Gergel said. “This whole thing is infinitesimal to what our firm does in business.”

In a letter to Coble, Richard Gergel said his wife would disqualify herself from “any participation in any debates, deliberations or votes regarding Mr. Nickles’ or Mr. Solomon’s representation of the City of Columbia.”

On Friday, Belinda Gergel clarified that she would not vote on issues involving hiring or paying Nickels and Solomon. She said she would, however,vote on issues where Nickels and Solomon represent the city because “I am receiving no financial interest.”

City taxpayers paid Gergel’s law firm $409,882.10 from July 2002 to August 2007, according to city records made public by a Freedom of Information Act request from a law firm in Charleston. The records are accurate, Richard Gergel said.

That amount includes $89,525.74 in 2006. In her state Ethics Commission filing earlier this year, Belinda Gergel said her husband was directly paid $6,581.60 from that $89,525.74.

“That’s to the penny,” Richard Gergel said.

The documents from the Charleston law firm’s public records request started popping up on political blogs like SC Hotline and The Pulse of Columbia in the past few weeks. Both blogs have claimed Belinda Gergel lied on her ethics filing.

Belinda Gergel said Friday she is the victim of a “smear campaign” by Boyer supporters.

“I think it’s very disappointing,” Belinda Gergel said. “They are trying to smear my campaign.

Bentley D. Price, an attorney with the Query, Sautter, Gliserman & Price law firm in Charleston, made the original request for the information that has surfaced on the Internet. Attempts to reach Price were unsuccessful.

Boyer said while he has heard of Price, he doesn’t know him.

Belinda Gergel said she has done everything to comply with the requirements of the State Ethics Commission.

“I really do think we have taken every extra step, and so has Richard, to make sure that there is no confusion about a conflict of interest,” she said.

Reach Beam at (803) 771-8405.