UPDATE: Attorney Responds to Councilman Claims About Overbilling

Reached this morning, the attorney whose office was accused by a Brick Councilman of overcharging for public defender services questioned the timing of the accusation - pointing out the accusation came just weeks before an election - and said her understanding of the billing practices in the township was "per client, per session."

Brick Councilman James Fozman says that the office of Bianca Sangiovanni - the Point Pleasant-based attorney who serves as an alternate public defender for the township and daughter of Republican Mayoral Candidate Joseph Sangiovanni - overcharged the township for services.

"From 2009 to the very first three to four months of 2012, she overbilled the township for serving as public defender," Fozman said in an interview with Brick Patch. "Her contract states that she is to be paid $250 per session, and she was charging $250 per person. Not on every bill, but different bills, and it comes out to over $20,000."

Fozman said that in February 2012 - when several newly-elected members of the Township Council, including Fozman, a Democrat, questioned her billing practices - she changed them to reflect the terms stipulated in her 2009 contract, which was $250 per court session.

But in an interview with Patch this morning, Mayor Stephen Acropolis told Patch that the differences in the wording on the different bills could have been due to  variation in time spent with individual cases and clients.

"In 2011, when John Ducey came on, he said it is supposed to be $250 per session, as it was in other towns," Acropolis said.

Acropolis acknowledged that the township was the "exception," to the general billing practices of other towns in Ocean County, but he said, "I am not going to apologize for Brick being on the cutting edge of changing things in society."

Acropolis said the way that the town paid was reflective of services rendered, and questioned whether it was "fair," to the clients, if an attorney, sees, say, 10 clients in a "session" that they would be paid approximately $25 per client.

At the recently-held Brick Council meeting, Fozman voted against a resolution that would have authorized payment for Bianca Sangiovanni, and he said he will continue to vote against that resolution until she "repays the money."

But reached this morning, Ms. Sangiovanni noted that this was the first time, in many years of bill payments, that Fozman voted not to pay.

"He signed off on all of the bills up till now, and now it is being brought up," she said. "It's ridiculous ... he knows this a bunch of malarkey."

She added that there were "several" other public defenders in the pool that were billing  -  and she pointed out, had payments authorized by the Council, in that way - and "of course, he only singled out my name."