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Municipal Law

Cramer & Anderson prides itself on its long history of representing Connecticut municipalities on both day-to-day issues and more complex matters and litigation.

Our Municipal Law group is broad and seasoned, providing specialized legal services to towns and cities that include ordinance and contract drafting, charter revisions, public works construction contracts and redevelopment contracts, defense litigation, complex litigation, labor negotiations and litigation, tax assessment appeal litigation, and tax foreclosures.

In representing municipal land-use agencies, the firm handles land-use and environmental litigation, land-use appeals, construction claims and disputes, takings disputes, condemnations, and affordable housing appeals, as well as water pollution control matters.

On those issues and many others, Cramer & Anderson has decades of experience in providing the highest quality legal services to municipal clients at highly competitive rates.

Our longtime municipal clients include the City of Danbury, for which Partner Dan Casagrande serves as outside Assistant Corporation Counsel, and the Town of New Milford, for which Partner D. Randall DiBella serves as Town Attorney, as well as Cornwall, represented by Partner Perley Grimes.

Attorney DiBella was appointed Town Attorney for the Towns of Sharon, Washington and North Canaan in the summer of 2018, and he and Partner Lorry Schiesel serve as Kent’s Town Attorneys. Attorney Schiesel, who is Town Attorney for Bridgewater, also represents New Milford’s Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA), and provides legal services as needed to the Sharon WPCA.

Our team is versed in Connecticut Freedom of Information Law, and Attorney DiBella is called upon to guide FOI panel discussions, including for the Freedom of Information Annual Conference.

Our Municipal Law team also has been retained for special counsel assignments on behalf of the Towns of Ridgefield, Middlebury, Southbury, Waterford, Cheshire, Bethany, Beacon Falls, and the City of Waterbury, for which the firm handled a complex and “historic change” in municipal government.

One notable aspect of the firm’s Municipal Law practice involves representing towns and cities—as well as private clients—in property tax assessment appeals. Our attorneys have successfully defended Connecticut municipalities in appeals involving highly complex valuation issues, including properties valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

These include the successful defense by Partners Dan Casagrande and Kim Nolan of Union Carbide Corporation’s appeal of Danbury’s $307 million valuation of its world corporate headquarters. The trial court upheld the City’s valuation after a 24-day trial, Union Carbide appealed, and Attorney Casagrande ultimately prevailed before the Connecticut Supreme Court, safeguarding $10 million in tax revenue for the City.

The Town of Waterford subsequently retained Attorney Casagrande and the firm when Dominion Nuclear Connecticut, Inc., owner of the Millstone Nuclear Power Station, appealed the town assessor’s $1.2 billion valuation of Millstone for tax purposes. After a four-year battle and a 24-day bench trial, the court preserved 93 percent of the town’s valuation in what is believed to be the largest assessment appeal litigated in Connecticut.

An ex-officio member of the Connecticut Association of Municipal Attorneys board, Attorney Casagrande served as CAMA president of from 2011 to 2013.

Related areas are Land Use and Environmental Law and Civil Litigation, Planning & Zoning Land Use and Land Use & Environmental Law.

 

Attorneys

D. Randall DiBella

Perley Grimes

Dan Casagrande

Kim Nolan

Dolores Schiesel

John Tower

Kent Mancini