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City Council enacts $35,000 increase for legal services
Summary
The Soldotna City Council on June 25 approved Ordinance 2025-018 to add $35,000 to the general fund for increased legal services, citing higher demand for public-records redaction and personnel-related legal work.
The Soldotna City Council voted to enact Ordinance 2025-018 on June 25, increasing estimated revenues and appropriations in the general fund by $35,000 to cover higher-than-anticipated legal services costs.
City Manager (City Manager) told the council the additional funds were needed because of “a higher than anticipated demand, particularly in complex public records and ongoing personnel matters.” He added that a substantial portion of the expense was redaction of video, audio and paper records tied to police records and other sensitive materials.
Councilmember Hutchings moved to enact the ordinance; Vice Mayor Parker seconded the motion. With no public comment, the ordinance passed by unanimous consent.
The City Manager said some redaction costs were recouped from requestors but that the volume of requests — and the time needed to redact certain records — drove the request for additional appropriation. The council did not amend the ordinance; the measure becomes effective as adopted and will be reflected in the city’s general-fund budget for fiscal 2026.
The city manager also said improvements to in-house redaction capability (a recently added camera system and anticipated redaction tools) may reduce similar costs in the future.
