PARSIPPANY — Council members in Parsippany are feuding again with Mayor James Barberio and Township Attorney John Inglesino over legal fees, particularly involving costs associated with a lawsuit pitting the township against former police Captain James Carifi.

In the latest flap, the council last month hired an auditor to investigate funds spent on the lawsuit and related payments to a technology security company. But the mayor told the auditor not to proceed because he said the council did not have the authority to execute such a contract under Parsippany's mayor-council form of government.

It's the most recent step in an ongoing battle in which council members say the mayor has kept specific legal bills secret, preventing council members from having needed oversight. Barberio in turn says several council members — including Lou Valori and Carifi's brother, Paul Carifi Jr. — have conflicts of interest related to the lawsuit and shouldn't have access to related records.

At the heart of the dispute are $601,679 in billings in 2013 and 2014 from Aurora Information Security & Risk, the firm hired to investigate James Carifi's alleged theft of more than 960,000 electronic documents when he left the police department in 2013, which is the basis of the lawsuit.

Also at issue is a 1099 tax form submitted to the township that lists $822,382 in "nonemployee compensation" to Inglesino's law firm for 2014.

Valori, leader of the effort for the audit, said Aurora has billed the township for 3,500 hours of work.

"Really?" Valori asked. "3,500 hours? For one computer?"

More than $1.4 million is now in question in the two areas — the billings from the Aurora firm and Inglesino's legal bills. Aurora's billing records became public following an Open Public Records Act request by Frank Cahill, editor and reporter for the online news site Parsippany Focus.

Former Parsippany Councilman Jonathan Nelson, who was on the panel in 2013 when Aurora started its work, supports the council's efforts to conduct the audit, saying it would have dispelled residents' and council members' questions.

"What harm could be done, when you're spending that amount of money on something that controversial?" Nelson asked. "I don't see how they can spend that much money to disk-image one hard drive. People will be asking, what do (Barberio and Inglesino) have to hide?"

For the Aurora work, the township wound up actually paying $267,000 -- far less than the $601,679 billed -- after Business Administrator Ellen Sandman negotiated the lower amount with the company. But Valori said the audit was still needed to see "how things got to this point" and Nelson said that amount still seemed high for the work involved, with more than $1 million still looming for both the legal work and the Aurora investigation.

As for the $822,382 in "nonemployee compensation" to Inglesino's law firm, both Barberio and Inglesino said not all of that paid for legal fees.

Inglesino said some of it was for payments under a flood mitigation program, which purchases flood-prone properties from homeowners.

"Various professional fees ... pass through" Inglesino and the legal fees actually amounted to $616,000, Barberio said. Those fees include expert witnesses, appraisal fees and bond counsel fees, Barberio said, although he did not provide a breakdown.

Barberio and Inglesino acknowledged that the Carifi lawsuit has proven costly to the township but they pinned the blame on Carifi.

"We have an obligation to get back the township's sensitive data," Inglesino said. He accused Carifi of holding onto Social Security numbers and medical records of employees.

"We never wanted this case," Barberio said. "Money is being spent because of Mr. Carifi's refusal to cooperate," which has included ignoring four court orders to return electronic documents, the mayor added.

Nelson said the legal expenses are high in Parsippany, but he said Inglesino is not to blame.

"I blame the mayor and the administration for not controlling the work they're giving him," Nelson said.

Ben Horowitz may be reached at bhorowitz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @HorowitzBen. Find NJ.com on Facebook.