The Borough of Conshohocken released its Fiscal Year 2019 Proposed Budget this week and Borough Council will consider adopting this proposed budget during the public meeting scheduled for Wednesday, December 19th at 7:00 p.m. at Borough Hall located at 400 Fayette Street.

We read through the budget and one thing jumped out at us. It looks like Borough Council is preparing for lots of legal issues in 2019.

Below are the figures for “Legal Fee’s – Special Counsel” in budgets going back to 2014. Please note that the earlier budgets refer to this line item as “Legal Fees – Special Counsel & Legal Matters.” This line item covers legal matters outside the scope of the solicitor who provides legal services to Borough Council and the administration on an ongoing basis.

2014 – $50,000
2015 – $50,000
2016 – $30,000
2017 – $10,000
2018 – $35,000
2019 – $200,000 (this number is from the projected budget)

As you can see, this line item has never been more than $50,000 as far back as 2014. For 2019, the proposed budget is $200,000.

Why such a large increase?

The Wawa issue is still not resolved and is likely going to continue into 2019. Depending on the outcome of the current hearings involving a validity challenge to the ordinance passed by Borough Council, the Wawa issue could actually ramp up legally in 2019.

There is going to be a very large construction project in Conshohocken in 2019 involving the a hotel, office building and parking garage. Maybe it has something to do with that?

Something else?

The 2014 through 2018 budgets and 2019 projected budgets are available here.