Sharon Coolidge, and Dan Horn

Cincinnati

Cincinnati Vice Mayor David Mann wants to know why an audit of the Metropolitan Sewer District didn't include an accusation that a city official threatened a law firm.

Mann asked his fellow council members on Thursday to join him in seeking more information about the threat accusation and how it may be related to a $55,000 MSD settlement withconsultant and former City Councilman Sam Malone.

The threat accusation appeared in a draft version of the city's recent MSD audit, but it was removed from the final version.

"I felt a little blind-sided. I wasn't aware there was an earlier draft," Mann said Thursday. "The more I thought about it, the more I thought it doesn't seem very transparent to me."

Lawyer: Threat tied to MSD payment

Mann's questions are connected to a $55,000 settlement the city paid to Malone in 2015 for work he claimed to have done while working as a sub-contractor for the Columbus law firm Bricker & Eckler. One of the firm's attorneys, Mark Evans, told city auditors that the city pressured him to pay Malone and also threatened to revoke the firm's contract with MSD if he didn't sign off on the payment.

According to the draft version of the audit, Evans said "he received a communication that the city would no longer engage his firm if the sub-contractor was not paid post haste." The auditors didn't say who made the threat, but Malone got his $55,000 check.

Mann said he also wants more information on why the city, which runs MSD, paid the settlement at all and about the relationship between MSD and Bricker & Eckler. The Enquirer reported in February that the firm's arrangement with Malone was unusual and that the city's settlement with him was paid even though it's unclear what work Malone did to earn the payment or if his contract required it.

For more than two years prior to the settlement, Malone was paid based on vague monthly invoices he submitted to the law firm, which then passed them on to former MSD Director Tony Parrott for approval. Under terms of the law firm's contract with MSD, it did not supervise Malone, approve his work or see his work. The firm's contract also required the city to pay Bricker & Eckler for Malone's work before the firm would pass money on to Malone.

The arrangement is unusual because sub-contractors typically are hired by contractors to perform specific tasks. In this case, the firm has said MSD asked it to take on Malone as a sub-contractor.

The city paying Malone last year, but Malone continued to submit invoices for at least four months. The Enquirer found those invoices totaled $55,000 and that the city completed a settlement with him in June, but only after extending an old contract with Bricker & Eckler by the necessary $55,000 and then cutting a check for Malone and closing out the deal on the same day.

Mann said he's concerned that an attorney with the firm would accuse a city official of making a threat associated with that settlement and he wants more specifics about what auditors and city officials may know about it. City Manager Harry Black said the threat was deemed unsubstantiated because the person accused of making the threat -- and another person accused of having knowledge of it -- both denied the allegation.

Mann said that's not good enough. "It was taken out because it was denied, but that doesn't mean the threat did not happen," Mann said. "It's troubling."

Mann's request will be discussed at city council's rules and audit committee next Tuesday.