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Committee delays $100,000 legal-services appropriation pending invoice breakout
Summary
The committee referred without recommendation a $100,000 appropriation request for legal department professional services after the city solicitor reported $121,000 in outstanding bills and said about $14,000 is immediately needed; members sought a detailed breakout of outside counsel invoices.
An order to appropriate $100,000 from the general fund budgetary fund balance to the legal department’s litigation professional services account was referred out with no recommendation by the Everett City Committee of Ways and Means on April 7 after members requested a detailed breakout of outside counsel invoices.
The item, offered by Councilor Stephanie DeBose, sought to ensure the legal department had sufficient funds to cover professional services through the rest of the fiscal year. City Solicitor Colleen Mejia told the committee she has approximately $121,000 in outstanding bills and $107,000 available in her line item. “I need approximately $14,000 now, so that would leave another about $85,000 till the end of the year,” Mejia said, identifying the immediate shortfall.
Mejia said the department relies on outside counsel for certain matters because the in-house office’s staffing has been reduced from four attorneys to two. She listed areas that routinely require outside counsel: labor, land-use, procurement and other specialized matters. Mejia said some matters may be covered by the city’s insurance carrier and some by outside counsel contracts; she also said she was awaiting a breakdown of invoices from outside counsel (referred to in the packet) to allocate costs correctly among subject matters.
Committee members raised concerns about repeated requests to supplement the legal account and asked that the committee review the outside-counsel invoice breakout before approving any supplemental appropriation. One member proposed the committee not grant the appropriation until the invoices from outside counsel (including the itemized breakout from the firm listed in the packet) were provided. The committee then rescinded a motion for favorable action and voted to refer the matter with no recommendation, leaving the detail review to the full City Council or a subsequent meeting once the solicitor provides the requested breakout.
No supplemental appropriation was approved at the April 7 committee meeting; the solicitor and the finance office were directed to provide the invoice detail to the committee and council for further consideration.
