Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board member faults high legal/consulting bills and missing records; board responds
Summary
A board member criticized what they described as rising solicitor/legal bills and said requested communications were deleted; other members noted long-standing e-mail deletion practices. The board noted a specific line item of $9,463.34 and discussed estimation vs. finalized costs.
A board member sharply questioned the district’s legal and consultant spending during the meeting, saying bills have ‘‘gone crazy through the roof’’ and estimating the district spent about $23,000 this year compared with $13,000 the prior year.
Speaker 2 cited multiple line items — including $1,880 listed for recording guidelines — and said the total outlay was excessive and merited restraint. Speaker 4 then identified one specific line item on the bill roll of $9,463.34. Speaker 2 also said they had requested e-mails, texts and other messages covering a 197-day period and received only a single e-mail in response, and accused colleagues of deleting messages that could have shed light on spending decisions.
Speaker 1 responded that deleting e-mails after meetings ‘‘has been suggested for at least six years’’ and described the practice as legal; the exchange left the substantive spending figures disputed and directed staff and the board to clarify records and line-item accounting.
Separately, there was an exchange seeking clarification about a capital estimate (a figure the speakers referenced as $534,000 and related contingency/design fees), with staff or board members confirming those presented numbers were estimates that would be refined during the design phase.
No formal motion to change legal spending or records-retention policy was recorded in this meeting; the discussion ended with the board voting on unrelated personnel items.
