Councilman Shocked by City's Huge Legal Bill

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Near the end of Monday's Council Meeting, Attorney/Councilman Rick Kingrea revealed the city's legal fees-- "not for a whole year, but just last month's"-- were over $180,000. Kingrea: " . . . have to tell you . . . I'm way passed concerned . . . its mind boggling . . . need to do something to get these under control. I know the Mayor gets to pick our professional services people . . . but we're paying way more than AMIC's (municipality insurance) recommended rates . . . this is way out of line . . . (we) really need to do something." After a brief discussion--Council President Quinn asked City Administrator Greg Mims and City Attorney Tut Wynne to study why the rates are excessive-- and bring their recommendations back to the Council. The Mayor did not attend this meeting. [Note: The City's legal firm is Hand Arendall, LLC.. According to public records, at least three of their attorneys donated to the Mayor's 2008 re-election campaign.]

Comments

Anonymous said…
lets see 180k a month, times twelve. over 1 million a year by my calcs!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Anonymous said…
I can't believe no one on the council knew legal fees could be negotiated...just pay them. I'd also like to know the line by line hourly fee for these charges and what they are. Attorneys are supposed to keep these records. They need to be made public. Wonder too how much is going back into Kant's pocket through the decades association with Hand Arendall. This is pay for play. Council should fire all attorneys who have worked for city and start with new ones. Should also try to settle all these law suits, but then again, the attorneys wouldn't make the money, right? Still think some of it goes back to Kant in some manner. No proof, yet. Things can be hidden very well.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
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