Employees, Taxpayers & Homeowners Facing Foreclosure in the Town of Rye Raise Concerns about the earnings of Town Attorney Jeff Binder, above
By Dan Murphy
Over the summer, Westchester Rising and Yonkerstimes.com received complaints from former and current employees in the Town of Rye concerning legal fees charged and collected by Town Attorney Jeff Binder. Binder, a longtime Westchester attorney, is paid a yearly salary of $61,472, but has also been billing the Town, on average, $20,000 every month for additional legal services, according to invoices obtained through FOIL.
That puts Binder’s yearly compensation at more than $260,000 per year, for a position paid for by the taxpayers in the Town of Rye, which includes Rye Brook, and the Rye Neck section of the Village of Mamaroneck. Some residents have questioned who in Town government is providing oversight and review of Binder’s bills, and who is protecting the taxpayers?
Two of Binder’s invoices that stand out are from Nov. 30, 2021, which show Binder billing the Town 25 hours on several different matters; and on Oct. 5, 2021, with billing of 15 hours, both in one day.
Town governments in Westchester pay for their Town Attorney’s in two different ways. The usual practice is to pay a yearly salary for a Town Attorney. Recently, Towns have been “farming out” their Town Attorney’s work to local law firms who bill the Town an agreed upon hourly rate. In January 2022, the Town of Rye passed a resolution for “tax certiorari matters” to Binder and another attorney at a rate of $250 per hour.
But Town Attorneys we spoke to said that they had never heard of a Town Attorney collecting a salary and also directly billing the Town for their services. And when we shared the monthly billing invoices of Rye Town Attorney Jeff Binder, they were shocked that Binder was billing more than $200,000 plus a $60,000 per year in salary.
First, let us clarify that the fees charged by Binder are legal, but what residents and former and current employees’ question is who in Town government is reviewing & approving what they call exorbitant charges?
In a recent letter to the editor of a local newspaper in Town, resident Aldo Vitagliano writes, “The Town attorney makes a salary of $61,472, but still has billed the town in the past years for an additional $200,000+ a year? On October 5, 2021, the Town Attorney billed for 15.25 hours of one day’s extra services. Where is the oversite (WITO)? He bills .3 for every interaction with his email account, seldom if ever .1 At $250 an hour that was $75 an email matter, WITO His fee was raised to $280 an hour two years ago – the resolution says only for tax certiorari matters – Does the Town Board check the bills? At $280 that is $84 an email. WITO
Most recently, the Town Attorney has been direct billing taxpayers who have successfully redeemed their properties from tax foreclosure. The direct off the books billing is thousands of dollars. WITO P.S. The Town Attorney is the incumbent Gary Zuckerman’s campaign manager and apparently chief fundraiser. Wait for the mailings you will get to see his handiwork,” writes Aldo Vitagliano.
Vitagliano references “off the books billing” by Binder concerning homeowners in the Town of Rye who had fallen behind on their property tax payments. Before they can sell their property, homeowners must pay up their tax bill to the town, and then need proof that they are paid in full.
The document is called a redemption certificate, which the homeowner can show their lender and move forward with the sale. Some of these fees appear to have been paid to the Town of Rye, allegedly to reimburse the Town of some costs for processing the in rem proceeding.
Yet starting in 2021, the payoff statements included a request for direct checks to Jeffrey Binder, with no apparent credit provided to the Town for other billings. Lyon Park Café on May 13, 2021 had a $3,500 fee for Jeffrey Binder. A homeowner on Avon Circle had a fee on June 17, 2021 of $3,100, one on Castle Landing Road a $4,250 fee to Binder on 6/1/2022. Some Commercial property owners paid fees of $1,250, $1,500.
Some longtime employees and former employees in the Town of Rye have complained about Binder’s fees for residential properties that have fallen behind on property tax payments. In some cases, the homeowner had fallen ill, or passed away, and a grieving family was left cleaning up the finances for their loved ones, only to find a fee from Binder ranging from $1,000 to $1,250.
We spoke to one of those family members who said “This was a traumatic time in my life. It boiled my blood when I found this out. It is sneaky and underhanded to go after people who are going through a difficult time, like a a grieving family, or some other older person who may be confused or just is short on money.”
We reached out to Binder for comment. He writes, “At the outset, you should be aware that the Town of Rye, under Supervisor Zuckerman, has taken a hard line against delinquent taxpayers and tasked my law office a few years ago with aggressively pursuing these cases in (and out of) court to prevent them from building up – the merits of this will be outlined below.
“First — your specific concern: $1250 Lien Release Fee – It apparently was reported to you that a “document can be obtained from the Town Tax office and get filed in the Westchester County Clerk’s office for a $5 fee.” In actuality, the $1250 is a fee charged to delinquent homeowners and is payable to the Town, not to the attorney. It is remitted to the Town at the end of the matter to help defray costs to the Town associated with the staff and Receiver’s work for calculating, preparing and transmitting (through my office) the payoff statements. Such pay-off statements are requested by the delinquent taxpayer and precede the ultimate resolution of an in-rem matter. Often, the delinquent taxpayer requests multiple versions of payoff statements depending on what month they anticipate paying, and often they require detailed explanations as to what they owe from the various municipalities – school, county, village, town, special district etc. This can be extremely time consuming for the staff of the Receiver’s office. The fee is also to help defray some, but often not all, of the litigation and fees incurred by my office in preparing and filing legal petitions for those properties that are so far in arrears that they are subject to in-rem court proceedings. Also, in many instances, it is not just the taxpayer who contacts the Town and requires documentation, it can be a mortgagor, a creditor, a prospective purchaser, etc. which often requires significant explanation and other back and forth between our offices and the interested party.
“You should also be aware that while you refer in your email to “homeowners,” the Town has many commercial properties in tax arrears and treats all taxpayers equally. I hope you can see that the $1250 is not for the filing of the Certificate of Redemption with the County Clerk’s office, it covers more than that as the Town endeavors to collect taxes due and owing for the schools, county and villages. You are aware, I am sure, that favoring delinquent taxpayers puts an unfair burden on those who pay their taxes timely.
In addition to the foregoing, you have made mention of other legal billing – pleased be advised as follows:
“Overall, my legal fees ($280 per hour) to the Town of Rye come from three areas of litigation – the two main areas include in-rem and tax certiorari matters. The other area is basically miscellaneous litigation that doesn’t fall into the first two – for example, I have been asked to handle the trial and appellate work on a matter involving the liability of the Town on a destroyed, pre in-rem property.
“In Rem matters – As stated earlier, the Town as a policy, decided a few years ago to pursue delinquent taxpayers (of which each year there are dozens) both in and out of court to satisfy their obligations to the various municipalities (school, county, village etc.) to which the Town must guarantee payment whether the taxpayer pays or not. As you may know, the Town is legally the guarantor for almost $250 million in taxes on behalf of the schools, county, and villages.
“So, each year my office is handed a list of properties that are at least two years in arrears, and we begin the process of seeking payment in full – the Town, unlike un prior administrations, does not accept payment plans.
“As an overview, the process of pursuing delinquent taxpayers involves sending multiple letters, fielding response phone calls, obtaining payoff statements, setting a redemption deadline, drafting Court petitions and supporting documents, analyzing title searches to determine necessary parties to the Court action, serving the necessary parties with the petition, communicating with taxpayers and/or their lawyers, appearing in court, and if necessary moving to take the subject property in-rem as a last resort. Note: The Town of Rye tries very hard NOT to take properties as it does not want to be in the real estate business.
“As such, it works with taxpayers to deeply understand their specific circumstances as to why they cannot pay and when they anticipate being able to pay. The Town, as an accommodation, works with the taxpayer to provide time to pay rather than establishing a myriad of payment plans that often are not adhered to and extremely difficult to keep track of.
“Very often, in rem matters take months (or more) to fully resolve wherein the Town gets fully paid, but our success rate is ultimately very good. Our offices have collected over $3 million in delinquent taxes for the Town since we’ve been doing this.
“Tax Certiorari Litigation – tax certiorari litigation for the Town of Rye involves defending the Town’s real property assessed values in court from litigants who have challenged their assessments over a number of years. These cases involve regular court conferences and their associated preparation, reviewing petitions filed, income and expense statement, proposed settlement offers, negotiations with the opposing counsel, briefing of stakeholders like school administrators, conferences with the Assessor, and briefing of the Town Board.
“While the number of cases facing the Town fluctuates based on settlements, withdrawals and new filings, the current number of cases against the Town stands at: 208 plaintiffs who have brought repeated cases over several years totaling 484 total proceedings. My office handles approximately 16 cases with approximately 50 assigned to other counsel. My fees for handling this litigation are also $280 per hour.”
Jeffrey Binder, Esq.
