The recent troubles in Moon have created some extra work for Robinson Manager Rich Charnovich.

Mr. Charnovich is reviewing bills submitted to the township by engineering firm Remington, Vernick & Beach, looking for issues similar to those that arose in Moon.

"I'm reviewing all of them in response to what's going on out in Moon," he said. "And that's really all I can say for now."

Moon Manager Greg Smith resigned Oct. 1, after 24 years in his position, amid a controversy that centers on the Philadelphia-based engineering firm. Mr. Smith said he believed Remington, Vernick & Beach was overbilling Moon and developers in the township. He also said the township supervisors were not responding to his concerns.

Three other top Moon officials, including Assistant Manager Jodi Noble, have since resigned as well.

Last week, Moon supervisors fired the engineering firm over its billing practices.

Mr. Charnovich, who does not have an assistant, said he has not been able to track all of the township's engineering bills throughout the year, but he said if excessive billing has occurred, it has not been obvious.

"Compared to last year [before Remington, Vernick & Beach was hired], the amount spent on engineering is pretty much the same," he said.

In Kennedy, which also employs Remington, Vernick & Beach, Manager Gary Vituccio said he has been tracking all of the bills and has had no problem with them.

The firm's bills "are what we would expect them to be," he said, and the firm has lived up to the commitments it made when it won Kennedy's business in the summer of 2007.

"I couldn't be more pleased with them at this time," Mr. Vituccio said. "I am pleased with the agreement, with the pricing we agreed to and with the level of the work."

The situation in Moon is not the first controversy surrounding Remington, Vernick & Beach, a relative newcomer to Western Pennsylvania.

The firm and its parent company, Remington Vernick, of Haddonfield, N.J., have been accused by critics of a practice called "pay for play," in which consulting firms make heavy political contributions and get work contracts in return.

The practice is generally legal unless specific promises are made, but it became such a problem in New Jersey that the state passed a law clamping down on the practice in 2005, and a number of eastern Pennsylvania municipalities have passed local ordinances against it as well.

So when Democratic majorities in both Moon and Robinson dropped the local engineering firm of Lennon Smith Souleret at the beginning of the year and hired Remington, Vernick & Beach instead, the Republican minorities in the two townships protested. The complaints were similar in both places: The decision came out of the blue, seemed preordained on the part of the Democratic majority and was executed with little or no public discussion.

Democratic leaders in the townships said the new firm offered better pricing and noted that neither Remington Vernick nor its employees had contributed to local candidates in the townships.

Kennedy had hired Remington, Vernick & Beach several months earlier, dropping the Cranberry-based HRG. Mr. Vituccio said the engineer who had worked with the township for HRG left the firm, prompting a change.