Our representation of municipalities links together several practice areas of our firm. Contract negotiations, financing techniques and litigation strategies all play a key role in the ability to offer the wide range of legal services which may be required by a municipality. We have acted as bond and underwriter’s counsel, represented downtown development authorities in various projects, assisted municipal authorities engaged in privatization efforts, and acted as general counsel to economic development commissions in various municipal development projects. We regularly represent municipalities in various types of litigation matters, including constitutional and employment claims, contract disputes, tax lien foreclosures, tax assessment appeals, and Freedom of Information disputes.
We currently serve as counsel to several municipal economic development corporations, rendering such diverse services as drafting charter provisions and ordinances, assisting in the implementation of Municipal Development Plans and implementing restructuring plans on Brownfields properties. We have also acted as counsel to a municipality in its successful redevelopment of its central business core. This representation involved extensive negotiations with a national regional mall developer, and obtaining state and federal grants.
We assisted Water Pollution Control Authorities of two cities in the privatization of their respective wastewater treatment plants, resulting in a format which has set the national standard for projects of this type. Our firm played a central role in the preparation of Requests for Qualifications, Requests for Proposals, the negotiation and drafting of Operations and Management Agreements, and the implementation of the municipal approval process for each city. A combined savings in excess of $60,000,000 over the fifteen-year contract term was anticipated to accrue to the Authorities.
We represented a local municipality in the successful regionalization, with three other communities, of its water pollution control system. This project entailed the creation of a regional water pollution control authority, the transfer of all of the municipality’s real and personal assets related to its sanitary sewer assets, obtaining all municipal approvals, negotiating the allocation of the purchase price for the transferred assets among all four communities, and the issuance of more than $100,000,000 in bond financings to fund acquisition and operational costs.
In our role as co-bond and underwriter’s counsel for various Connecticut municipalities and their underwriters, we have been instrumental in structuring and implementing numerous tax-exempt general obligation financings. These have included the refunding of regional coliseum bonds, and the issuance of bonds and notes issued in connection with library renovations, recreational and open-space projects, and environmental remediation projects including Clean Water Fund grants. We are listed in the Bond Buyer’s Redbook for municipal finance attorneys.