A Lehigh Valley developer has sued Northern Lehigh and Parkland area school districts over the collection of school taxes.

The case is Lehigh Valley Properties Inc., Dennis J. Atiyeh, Laurie Harakal Atiyeh v. Portnoff Law Associates Ltd., Northern Lehigh School District, Parkland School District, and Allentown School District.

Northern Lehigh and Parkland have engaged the firm to serve as defense counsel, though the firm said its engagement is “limited in scope.”

At the last meeting, Director Gale Husack read statements submitted to the board by Katja Bender, of Slatington.

“After reading the agenda for this evening and (the attachment regarding) the district’s role as defendant in this case, I did some further research on my own and with the assistance of several other district parents,” Bender said. “It appears to me that this has been ongoing for quite a long time, and there seems to be no end in the near future.

“While it does appear that NLSD is being wrongfully sued, from what I could find out, I am curious about how this legal representation is being funded. Are tax dollars that could be going toward the direct education of students being used for this?

“In addition, has there been a cost-benefit analysis done for the situation in the past, and has that been reassessed at any point since then?

Bender asked if state or federal funding is available to offset the costs. “Or must the taxpayers eat the cost indefinitely?”

Board President Mathias Green responded to Bender’s concerns.

“Does the state or federal government give you any money for that, the answer is absolutely not, no,” Green said. “They come up with a lot of mandates, but they don’t give you money to cover any of them. So, no, there’s no extra money provided; that’s money that comes out of the general fund budget.

“As far as the fact that it’s been an ongoing case, yes it has been; and a couple of the reasons for that are the attorney switched firms, which is why we have the item on the agenda tonight; the judge who was already originally going to hear to the case didn’t hear it for reasons I don’t understand, and now he’s retired, so now a new judge is taking over so we’re kind of back to square one there with some of those things.”

He said there has been a financial analysis.

“The board was informed of what the criteria were, what the objectives were, but the rest of the board agreed unanimously at the time that yes, this was something that we wanted to pursue, had to pursue, and couldn’t just drop it at that point in time.

“I can tell you every time we get involved in a legal issue like this, yes, we do sit down; most times our solicitor would be with us, we look at what attorney fees might be, what we would tend to gain if we win, or not lose if we lose; the overall ramifications of what it could cost us, etc., and then we make a decision to proceed and go forward.”

Superintendent Matthew J. Link said he “cannot comment on it too much because it is ongoing litigation.”

“It involves a property owner who owes taxes to both districts, plus fees,” Link said. The amount was not available.

Contacted last week, Atiyeh’s attorney declined to comment at this time.