Stop bill padding: counsel

THE CITY’S top lawyer is accusing the FDNY’s courtappointed watchdog of padding his latest six-figure bill with “unnecessary work.”

Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo won’t cut the check for $191,688.14 to the monitor, Mark Cohen, without at least putting up a fight. Cohen has so far billed the city nearly $1 million for nine months of work.

Cardozo is asking Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis to reduce the amount that the monitor is seeking for fees and expenses, arguing that it duplicates work the city already pays other experts to do.

Garaufis appointed the monitor earlier this year to oversee sweeping changes in the FDNY’s recruitment, hiring and equal employment opportunity practices in response to a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit alleging discrimin ation against black and Hispanic firefighter appplicants.

Cardozo’s complaints about the monitor’s two prior bills — totaling over $300,000 each — were rejected by the judge.

Still, Cardozo has renewed his request to review the monitor’s hourly records in detail.

This time, Cardozo zeroed in on an “inordinate” amount of time billed for reviewing court filings from Brooklyn Federal Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals.

“Approximately 10% of the current statement is attributable to this category of unnecessary work,” Cardozo wrote to the judge in a letter filed on Friday.

Cardozo also took a shot at Cohen for seeking more than $100,000 for researching recruitment policies in other jurisdictions.

“With all due respect to the court monitor, it is quite unlikely that any of his legal staff has the necessary knowledge about firefighting or recruiting to justify spending a penny on their services for this work,” Cardozo argued.

Cohen did not return a call seeking comment.