By Denise Jewell Gee
Erie County lawmakers disagree over how to pay a $7 million legal settlement for a woman who was brain-damaged after she nearly drowned in a public pool in 2009.
County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz wants the county to borrow the money. Republicans in the County Legislature want the county to pay at least a portion of the settlement directly.
“We just feel that if you pay cash for that, we don’t have to pay the interest,” said Legislature Minority Leader John J. Mills.
The county in December agreed to settle a personal-injury lawsuit that alleged the county failed to properly train or supervise lifeguards working at a West Side Buffalo pool in August 2009 when Jannette Morales, then 37, nearly drowned. The county at the time operated the city-owned pool.
Lawmakers, however, can’t agree how to pay the settlement.
Mills and other Republicans in the Legislature last week met with Poloncarz to air concerns over a plan to borrow the settlement amount and repay it over a five-year period using a judgment bond.
Lawmakers emerged from the meeting with no resolution, and legislators held off on voting on the bond request.
The Legislature includes six Democrats, four Republicans and one Independent who caucuses with the Republicans. Bond sales require a two-thirds majority — or eight votes — meaning Poloncarz will need at least two votes from the Republican caucus to pursue his plan.
The Republicans contend that between a projected yearend surplus for 2011 of about $26 million and another $83 million in the county’s undesignated fund balance, the county has enough cash to pay at least a portion of the settlement now.
The county also has about $6 million in a “risk retention” fund that is used to pay for legal settlements, and Mills said he would like to see at least a portion of the payment come from that fund.
A Poloncarz aide, however, told legislators last week that low interest rates make borrowing an attractive alternative.
“We believe a more cautious approach is necessary,” said Mark Cornell, Poloncarz’s director of policy and communications.
Cornell noted that year-end finances for 2011 aren’t complete, and the county’s charter requires lawmakers to set aside about $67 million — or 5 percent of the county’s operations budget — for emergencies.
County legislators, at Poloncarz’s request, late last year took $3 million that would have been set aside in the risk retention fund in 2012 and used it to offset additions to the county budget, such as arts and cultural funding and rat control.
That left less money in the fund for legal settlements and other fees.
The county must pay the Morales settlement by March.
According to court documents, Morales was found, facedown, by her son as they swam in the city’s Rees Street pool in August 2009. Lifeguards on duty, court documents alleged, were inattentive, talking or texting on cellphones that afternoon, and they never realized Morales was in trouble. It was her son who pulled her from the pool and began CPR.
Jed Dietrich, an attorney for Morales, said the money will be used to help pay for her care.
“This is a case where the supervision at the pool was absolutely lacking,” Dietrich said. “And hopefully, they’re going to put a system in place where it’s not going to happen again.”
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/erie-county/article704966.ece