Brainerd City committee authorizes up to $30,000 to codify city code with American Legal Publishing

The Brainerd City Personnel Finance Committee voted Jan. 20 to authorize staff to enter an agreement with American Legal Publishing (ALP) to codify the city’s municipal code, with a maximum initial budget of $30,000.

“Council has budgeted $50,000 for codification,” the finance director said in presenting the item, outlining ALP’s estimate that upfront costs would likely fall between $25,000 and $30,000 depending on page counts and options. Staff also told the committee that recurring annual hosting and maintenance costs would likely be about $2,000–$3,000, with a baseline online staging fee of $695.

Staff recommended contracting with ALP because the company has performed codification work for more than 300 Minnesota municipalities and is widely used by city governments. The project timeline described by staff included several months of planning followed by seven to nine months of active codification, and staff said the work would take about a year to complete from contract execution to final publication.

A council member moved to authorize staff to enter an agreement with ALP for codification services with a $30,000 cap; the motion was seconded and carried. Committee members agreed that if staff identified needs that would push the cost above $30,000, staff should return to the council for further authorization.

Next steps: staff will finalize and execute an agreement within the approved budget and account for annual hosting fees in future budgets.