Taxpayers foot big legal bills when city hires a lawyer

Unless the claim is simple enough to be managed by either the City Attorney or Assistant City Attorney, an outside law firm or lawyer, usually from out of town, is hired to provide a defense when the City gets sued.

Some of these lawsuits go on for years, as in the case of the Donna Wendler and her husband, who were not allowed to demolish their non-historic, but over 50-year-old, multi-family houses on King Street to build a boutique hotel. The legal bill on that lawsuit is plumping up very nicely.

On the other hand, the City allowed controversial developer David Corneal to have a demolition permit for the historic Carpenter House, and the next day it sat in rubble on the grounds of the former Dow Museum of Historic Homes. The City has essentially said, “oops, my bad” and now requires builders to wait out the 30-day appeals period before actually exercising an approved demolition permit.

Nobody sued the City over that deal (wink, wink, nod, nod) but they may not be so lucky in the future.

We ordered up a report of the actual money paid to outside lawyers for legal fees beyond the scope of the City Attorney, who is paid a salary of $127,866.51 annually plus benefits, and the Assistant City Attorney, who is paid $61,800.00 annually plus benefits.

The information provided doesn’t include lawyers hired and paid for by the liability insurance company. It also does not account for money damages from losses in court or negotiated settlements, like the $1.458 million dollar purchase of the San Marco property to quell the dispute between those neighbors and 7-Eleven who intended to build a convenience store with gasoline on the now vacant lot.

Here is what we found:

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