Harrisburg City Council answered the state's takeover threat by voting to seek Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy protection Tuesday night, essentially adding the courts and more turmoil to the fight over the capital city's fate.



The same majority who voted down the state-sponsored Act 47 plan and Mayor Linda Thompson's followup fiscal-recovery plan voted 4-3 to hire Philadelphia-area lawyer Mark Schwartz to fight the takeover and then 4-3 to file for bankruptcy as soon as possible.



Councilman Brad Koplinski said the recovery plans introduced so far have done nothing for the city and only protect creditors and other stakeholders of the city's debt. Harrisburg would have to file for bankruptcy in three to five years under the plans anyway, he said.



Koplinski introduced both resolutions Tuesday night and said the bond insurance company Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp., which backed much of the city's incinerator debt, has to step up with at least $100 million in concessions to make any plan work.



"This really is our only option out there," Koplinski said of bankruptcy. "I believe this is the only thing that will work."



Susan Brown-Wilson, Eugenia Smith, Wanda Williams and Koplinski voted in favor of both resolutions.



"Wake up, Harrisburg. Wake up and look around," Smith said. "I'm tired of being bent over and spanked in the corner. We should have been filing for bankruptcy in 2010."



Brown-Wilson said she can sleep at night because she rejected the plans state lawmakers wanted the city to adopt.



"AGM needs to come to the table, ladies and gentleman," she said. "It's about political gamesmanship and lining pockets."



Schwartz would not say when he would file bankruptcy papers on the city's behalf, but said it would be soon.



"[Chapter 9] means Harrisburg may get immediate relief from the lawsuits against it," Schwartz said. "Nobody has tried to negotiate more than the four people who carried the vote tonight and me."



Thompson's spokesman, Robert Philbin, said the council made a very unpopular move Tuesday night. He said a recent poll commissioned by ABC27 News of 1,000 city voters shows that only 13 percent of the city's residents support the bankruptcy option.



City Council President Gloria Martin-Roberts said filing for bankruptcy would only create more lawsuits against the city.



Council Vice President Patty Kim and Councilman Kelly Summerford echoed Martin-Roberts' sentiments.



"Our creditors are going to sue us out the wazoo before we even get to bankruptcy court," Kim said. "From this point on, this is going to get harder."



Schwartz recently sent a letter to Gov. Tom Corbett's general counsel, Steve Aichele, asking for a meeting with him to discuss alternatives to a takeover.



He said Aichele, who used to be a lawyer for Saul Ewing, the law firm that represents Assured Guaranty, called his request "ridiculous."



"What's ridiculous is the fact that this governor's council's previous law firm is the one representing the bond insurer and they're acting just like an insurance company. A tree falls in your yard, you paid 30 years worth of insurance premiums, guess what, they don't want to pay for it," Schwartz said.



"They were paid a fee to take a risk. And what this whole thing is about, the lawsuits and the takeover legislation is all about their getting priority over the other creditors," he continued. "The governor hasn't brought 10 cents to the table. Nor the state senators, nor any of the legislators."



The fiscal-code amendment promises to take away state funds available to the city if it attempts to file for bankruptcy before next summer.



Those funds include grants, economic development monies and other entitlements it could be eligible for moving forward.



The amendment cannot prevent the city from filing for bankruptcy, however, and it cannot strip pension funding and fire protection money the state delivers to Harrisburg each year.



Schwartz called the state's attempt to block the city from filing for bankruptcy and its takeover threat "unconstitutional."



Further, Thompson cannot veto Resolution 48, which the council adopted, acting city solicitor Jason Hess said.



Hess told the council the resolutions are not binding because it did not send him a letter of engagement defining the scope and fees associated with the hire, nor did it advance copies of either resolution for him to review.



"If you choose so, you can go against the advice," Hess said. "As parliamentarian, I cannot enforce the rules of City Council."



Council tried to hire Schwartz at its last meeting, but Roberts and Hess fought the hire shortly afterward.



In an attempt to prevent the city from filing for bankruptcy, state lawmakers passed an amendment to the state's fiscal code just before it recessed for the summer.



Last month, the House overwhelmingly approved an amendment Rep. Glen Grell, R-Hampden Twp., made to legislation introduced by Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin County, that would allow a state takeover of the city.



Neither Piccola nor Grell could be reached for comment following the council's vote Tuesday night. The state Senate is expected to vote on legislation shortly after it returns from recess Monday.



Corbett, who also could not be reached for comment, promised to sign takeover legislation should it reach his desk.



A spokesman for AGM could not be reached for comment.



Piccola and Grell said previously that the city could avert a takeover if council could come together on a fiscal-recovery plan that addresses the city's $310 million of incinerator debt and budget deficit.



Schwartz said he normally charges $525 per hour to represent clients, but will represent the council for $300 an hour unless it wins substantial concessions from the city's creditors.



He said he doesn't expect the cash-strapped city to pay him immediately for his services.