Greensburg law firm gets $72K raise for Westmoreland water, sewer advice

A Greensburg law firm will be getting a 42% raise this year for the work it provides to the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County.

Avolio Law, led by Scott Avolio, has been the authority’s attorney since 2013, and, for the past decade, was paid a flat fee of $170,000 annually to oversee legal issues for the agency that provides water and sewage treatment to customers in parts of Westmoreland, Armstrong, Allegheny, Fayette and Indiana counties.

Under terms of the new deal, Avolio’s firm will be paid $185 an hour for about 25 hours per week, totaling about 1,310 hours of work over the next 12 months for a cost of about $242,000.

“We really like the team we have in place, and we operate well,” said municipal authority board chairman Randy Roadman. “The solicitor’s rate has not changed since 1999, and it’s only fair. He reviews all of our acquisitions, and we’re bringing him up to current standards.”

Avolio said he and two other lawyers handle authority business and said the work in recent years has increased with the municipal authority’s purchases of additional sewer systems.

“It’s more intensive work,” Avolio said.

In addition to his work at the authority, Avolio is an assistant Westmoreland County solicitor, handling litigation issues. He earned more than $85,000 in that that role last year, according to county payroll figures.

The authority’s legal bills will include separate payments to another private lawyer, Daniel Pagliari of Sarver. The authority renewed its contract with Pagliari to be counsel for labor issues at a rate of $200 an hour.

The legal expenses are in addition to the $1.5 million annual fee paid to Johnstown-based Resource Development and Management Inc., which manages the authority. The company was first hired by MAWC in the early 1990s to consult on management issues and, for more than two decades, has served as the authority’s management firm.

In 2020, the authority board extended the company’s long-term management contract to run through 2030.