The Libby City Council voted to approve a resolution and legal services agreement authorizing the city to engage outside counsel on potential product-liability claims tied to AFFF/PFAS. Mayor Williams led the item and the council took a voice vote after brief staff comments and public remarks.

The measure authorizes the city to execute a legal services agreement with a team of law firms the city identified to assist public entities in PFAS-related litigation. City staff said the step is precautionary; there is no current evidence in the meeting record that PFAS have been detected in Libby's water supply. The city's statement of purpose in the resolution says the city is committed to delivering safe drinking water and to identifying parties responsible for increasing water treatment and system maintenance costs.

Mister Chisholm, who introduced the item at a prior meeting, made no new comments at the vote and the City Administrator told the council he was available to answer questions. During public comment, a resident identified as Mister Orr urged the council to remove a whereas clause in the resolution that he said is untrue, calling the clause "a bold faced lie." The council did not change the resolution language and proceeded to a voice vote; the mayor announced the motion carried. The meeting record does not show a roll-call tally or recorded individual votes.

The resolution was described in the meeting as preventative: it would allow the city to pursue settlement or other claims in the future should testing or subsequent evidence show the city has a claim related to PFAS or AFFF-containing products. The council also discussed whether approving the resolution alone was sufficient to authorize the agreement'the clerk and mayor confirmed the resolution is intended to authorize execution of the agreement.

Next steps: the council directed staff to finalize signatures and to forward the executed agreement as appropriate. The city did not specify in the meeting record which firm would be lead counsel or provide a dollar amount for legal services in the agreement.