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Grand Island council hears request for third city attorney as prosecutions and contract work rise
Summary
City staff told council the legal office is behind on requests because of growing prosecution and contract workloads; staff proposed tracking legal hours and asked for a full‑time attorney position with a total annual cost of about $207,838.
Grand Island City Council members discussed a request to add an attorney to the city attorney’s office during a July 15 study session as staff warned the office is behind on routine work and prosecution filings.
City Attorney Carrie Fisk told the council the biggest driver of the increased workload is a spike in prosecutions and traffic cases coming from the Grand Island Police Department. “The most market and tangible increase has been in the prosecution functions in the case load that's coming in from GIPD,” Fisk said, noting traffic citations and related case processing funnel to the city attorney’s office.
The request before the council would add one full‑time equivalent attorney and associated benefits. Assistant City Administrator and Chief Financial Officer Patrick Brown gave the estimated full cost for the new FTE as $207,838, describing that figure as a roughly 43% increase to the department’s personnel costs if the position is approved.
Why it matters: council members and staff said the legal office’s backlog is creating delays for other departments and for council agenda items. Fisk said the department is “typically running behind on almost every request because they're just coming in at a volume that we can't keep up with,” and warned delays can cascade into slower permitting, contract review and prosecution of tickets.
Police Chief Denny provided data connecting enforcement and legal workload, saying the department expects about 13,000–14,000 traffic stops this year compared with just under 10,000 in 2024. “Our traffic stops are up so far this year compared to last year about 86%,” Chief Denny said, and added that citation volumes have roughly doubled in recent years.
Council members pressed staff for supporting data before approving a new hire. Multiple council members suggested options such as contracting for temporary prosecution help or reimbursing contract work, and Brown and the city administrator, Laura McAloon, recommended establishing a time‑tracking system for the legal office to quantify hours spent on prosecutions, contracts, utilities (including FERC matters) and other work by department. McAloon said a timekeeping system would let the city determine where legal hours are concentrated and whether fees or admin charges should be adjusted.
Fisk told the council contracting out prosecution work can be expensive and limited: outside attorneys commonly charge $150–$400 per hour and many private firms cannot accept prosecution work because of conflicts. She said past attempts to contract the entire function nearly doubled costs compared with in‑house staffing. Several council members asked staff to return with time‑tracking data and comparative staffing levels from similar cities before deciding on the FTE request.
Ending: Council members did not vote on staffing at the study session; staff said they would begin time tracking and supply comparative data and refined cost estimates to inform a later budget decision.
