Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Legal Contracts topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Village manager recommends retaining prosecutor John Coleman to curb legal retainer costs
Summary
Village Manager Gains Brown told committees on May 4 that keeping prosecutor John Coleman as the mayor's court prosecutor could reduce the village's outside legal retainer from about $9,000 to roughly $8,000 while preserving continuity for mayor's court and legislative work.
Village Manager Gains Brown told council committees on May 4 that the village is reviewing outside legal services and recommended retaining the current mayor's court prosecutor, John Coleman, as a cost-saving measure and to preserve institutional knowledge.
Brown said the village's monthly legal retainer with Bricker Graden & Wyatt is currently about $9,000 to cover out-of-scope services; keeping Mr. Coleman on as the locally engaged prosecutor would reduce the retainer to roughly $8,000 once the scope of outside work is renegotiated.
"The recommendation was to keep him on because he's familiar with our systems, familiar with the village and that would be a cost savings for our purposes," Brown said, referring to John Coleman.
Brown told the committee that work such as legislation and contract review would continue to be handled through the solicitor and that Mr. Coleman would also be available for mayor's court prosecutions. Council members were told Coleman would attend the next full council meeting on May 11.
The manager said staff are completing a file transfer from the previous legal firm, reviewing the volume of work and preparing to renegotiate the retainer after a three-month assessment of out-of-scope activity. No vote to change the retainer or hire action was recorded at the meeting; staff said they will present recommended legislation and cost estimates to council for formal action.
