Schwartz Quits As Harrisburg Council Lawyer

Mark Schwartz, who has represented the Harrisburg City Council since October and filed a Chapter 9 petition on its behalf, withdrew from its most recent filing from the Commonwealth Court, saying he has not been paid.

Schwartz has been representing the council, Treasurer John Campbell and Comptroller Dan Miller before the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, which is considering a motion by state-appointed receiver William Lynch to force the council to triple Harrisburg’s earned-income tax as part of the city’s financial recovery plan.

The court has scheduled a hearing on the motion for Wednesday, with a council response due Monday. The council has requested a delay in the proceeding, to which Lynch objected in a motion through law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP.

Harrisburg has $310 million in guaranteed bond debt that it cannot pay because of huge incinerator-retrofit cost overruns.

“To date I have not received one cent in payment for my fees and thousands of dollars in costs and filing fees for various proceedings that I paid on your behalf,” he wrote to council President Wanda Williams.

A bankruptcy judge in November invalidated the City Council’s Chapter 9 filing. The appeals courts upheld the ruling.

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