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City solicitor urges in‑house counsel hire; council debates assistant post and budget placement
Summary
The acting city solicitor told the council the FY2026 legal budget includes funds to backfill a vacant assistant solicitor post and recommended against creating a satellite solicitor for individual departments. Councilors questioned placement of a part‑time police-facing attorney in the mayor's proposed budget and asked for a formal contract step
The city's legal department asked the council to approve funding that would allow hiring an experienced in‑house assistant solicitor and to keep legal services centralized rather than creating a department-specific solicitor.
The acting city solicitor told councilors the department has been operating short-staffed since the prior solicitor's contract was not renewed and that some litigation-related demands and unresolved claims required immediate attention. The solicitor asked the council to support an assistant solicitor hire at market pay to reduce reliance on outside counsel; the solicitor observed that outside counsel rates for some school-district work exceeded $265 an hour while the in-house salary request equates to a lower effective hourly cost.
Councilors raised a separate proposal included in the mayor's budget for a part-time police-facing attorney funded at $60,000. Some members questioned whether the city needed a dedicated solicitor in the police department and asked whether consolidation of legal services under the city solicitor's office would be preferable. The solicitor said a consolidated, centralized law department that serves all city departments is more efficient and that he did not support restoring satellite solicitors in departments.
Councilors requested that the solicitor's contract, including salary step placement and any proposed assistant positions, be provided for review and that HR post the assistant-solicitor vacancy as soon as possible if the council supported backfilling the vacancy. No formal action on the legal appropriation occurred at the workshop.
