Freeport council debates how to budget rising legal fees; attorney proposes fixed fee or higher hour cap

Councilors pressed the presenter about an uptick in outside legal hours and how the city should budget for professional services going forward. The presenter said legal time has averaged roughly 61 hours per month this fiscal year versus a historical budgeted level of about 38 hours.

"We tried to break this up ... prior to Bruce's time," the presenter said, describing past practice of allocating professional-service costs across departments. He told councilors he receives $500 a month to attend the two regular council meetings and bills at $175 an hour for additional work, and he suggested the council could either budget for the higher-hour run rate or negotiate a fixed monthly amount to create budget certainty.

Councilors reacted in two ways: some asked staff to increase the monthly hours budget slightly to reduce the need for amendments, while others preferred the fixed-fee approach to avoid repeated council votes on budget amendments. One council member said she did not want frequent budget amendments and favored a flat fee so the attorney's workload would not be constrained when litigation or emergency issues arise.

The presenter attributed much of the increased hours to a recent private litigation (Hathaway Investments) and a higher volume of real-time contract and engineering reviews that require frequent calls. He said litigation time is unpredictable and that a fixed retainer could smooth month-to-month fluctuations, but it would not eliminate additional charges when opposing counsel runs up litigation hours.

Councilors asked staff to provide options at the next budget workshop: a proposed monthly retainer, a revised hourly-cap budget (for example, budgeting to 60 hours per month) and invoice-level detail by department to ensure the right funds bear the cost. The council made no final decision; staff will include these options in the materials for the Aug. 3 workshop.