New Jersey’s Ryan White Planning Council Drops Legal Case Against Paterson City Council Over Federal Grant
The Ryan White Planning Council, an HIV/AIDS outreach group serving Bergen and Passaic counties in New Jersey, on Monday dropped legal action against the Paterson, N.J., City Council after the two sides reached an out-of-court agreement regarding a $4 million federal grant, the Bergen Record reports. The local RWPC, which receives a large grant from the national Ryan White Planning Council and then gives smaller grants to HIV/AIDS service providers in the area, had planned to grant 23 contracts totaling $4 million to local groups that provide HIV/AIDS-related services. Although the Paterson City Council approved 16 of the contracts as presented by RWPC, it did not approve the remaining seven. The seven contracts were rejected because of improper review and bias allegations, the lawyer for the City Council said, according to the Record. However, officials from the state's RWPC said that the City Council did not have the authority to change budgetary figures in the contracts. RWPC needed the City Council to sign off on the contracts by Wednesday in order to receive the funding from the national Ryan White Planning Council. However, after Superior Court Judge Robert Passero last week urged the groups to reach an agreement on the issue or undergo an in-depth legal battle, RWPC on Monday filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying that the two parties would work out a compromise, according to the Record. "We're pleased with the outcome," Frank Covello, the attorney representing RWPC, said, adding, "We're satisfied that the city will move forward with the grant" (Varoqua, Bergen Record, 9/14).
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