City staff told the Spokane City Council during its Oct. 27 agenda-review meeting that the administration will increase outside-counsel spending to prepare for a December trial over the city’s water rates and will retain specialty insurance-defense counsel in separate litigation.

Elizabeth Shadle, a city staff member briefing the council, said the first contract, with attorney Edward McMahon, is for the city’s outside rate-case defense in a class-action challenge. “We’re set for trial on December 8,” Shadle said, adding that settlement talks have been unsuccessful and that the city is adding money to the contract “so we can pay our bills.”

Shadle described a second contract as related to the Durgin matter, explaining that an insurer in Pennsylvania has sued the city to determine whether it must reimburse defense costs. “The insurance company has filed litigation against us to have the court say that they’re not responsible for any defense costs,” she said; the additional outside attorneys would specialize in insurance work to represent the city.

The council did not ask follow-up questions during the briefing. No formal vote on the contracts was recorded during the agenda-review session; staff presented the briefing as information ahead of the consent agenda and trial schedule.

City staff did not provide dollar amounts or the precise scopes of the amended contracts in the Oct. 27 briefing. Those budgetary and scope details were not specified in the meeting transcript and appear intended for the consent-calendar or subsequent legal-billing reports.