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City shifts legal pay lines: Scott Damron moved to contracted role; administration budgets more outside counsel and assistant attorneys
Summary
Mayor Farrell said long‑time city attorney Scott Damron is now serving as acting city attorney under a contracted services line; the FY2026 proposal moves some salary lines to professional services and budgets additional assistant city attorneys and outside counsel amid anticipated increased enforcement and litigation.
Mayor Farrell told council the city attorney previously employed as staff has moved to a contracted acting city attorney arrangement and that the FY2026 budget reflects that change by shifting payroll savings into the professional services line. The mayor said the administration also plans to add assistant city attorney capacity and budget more for outside legal counsel.
Detail and rationale: Farrell said the total legal services budget is increasing by approximately $141,000 to reflect anticipated workload, including collections, vacant‑building enforcement and other litigation the mayor expects may arise as the city pursues unpaid taxes and compliance actions. He said the contracted professional services line now funds the acting city attorney and that the budget also adds funds for outside counsel and a second assistant to handle collection and enforcement work.
Council members asked whether contracting out legal work versus hiring an in‑house attorney would be more or less costly overall. The mayor said if the city hires a full‑time employee he would move funds from contracted services back to payroll with a budget revision, and he said part of the professional services increase is to fund “specialty” municipal practice expertise that the in‑house team might not have.
The mayor said the move to contracted services included consideration of the 120‑day limit for an acting appointment and that a permanent appointment or contracting decision will be finalized within the statutory and administrative timeframes.
Ending: The revised legal funding lines reflect the administration’s expectation of greater collections and litigation work and are intended to ensure the city has capacity and outside expertise available when needed.
