Brockton Accounts Committee Votes to Audit Boys and Girls Club Legal Fees

BROCKTON — May 7, 2026 — Brockton Accounts Committee flags refuse contract surge, school finance gaps, and Boys and Girls Club legal costs. The three-member committee — Chair Peter Fowell and Councillors Marlon Green and Susan DeCastro, with Councillors Jeffrey Charnel and Shirley Azak absent — voted unanimously to formally request all FY2026 purchase orders from outside law firms Murphy, Hessey, Toomey, and Lehane and Murphy, Lameray, and Murphy related to the longstanding Boys and Girls Club easement dispute, after Fowell noted the school department has already spent $455,955 of a $625,000 outside legal budget. City Auditor Gonzalez reported that the Republic Services solid waste contract rose from roughly $7.5 million to $9.1 million after two amendments, the second effective July 1, 2025, with no competing bid submitted. DeCastro acknowledged the locked-in prior rate had delayed a fee increase for years: "Going from 6.4 million to 9.1 million is a huge increase." On school finances, Gonzalez confirmed a $3,791,387 CARES Act deficit in a special revenue fund and a $4.6 million net school spending shortfall for FY2026 both remain unresolved, and must be addressed before the city sets its FY2027 tax rate in late fall.