The high cost of counsel

POST FALLS - Post Falls contracts its legal services for regular city business matters, but the day may be getting closer for the city to hire an in-house attorney if it financially makes sense.

"Shelly (Enderud, city administrator) and I contemplate hiring an attorney each year during the city's budget process," said Jason Faulkner, Post Falls finance director.

"We evaluate the prior year's costs and project any special projects along with any additional needs during the upcoming years to justify hiring a city attorney. I will be continually re-evaluating the cost each year."

Since the firm of Mason and Stricklin, LLC, dissolved more than a year ago, Boise-based Hawley Troxell has served as Post Falls' contract counsel for civil matters and at city council meetings. Jerry Mason represented the city for more than 20 years and partner Nancy Stricklin assisted for 12 years.

John Cafferty, who works out of the Coeur d'Alene office of Hawley Troxell, serves as Post Falls' primary civil attorney. The hourly rate for the services of Hawley Troxell is $135 per hour, which is the same rate Mason and Stricklin charged during its last few years.

Post Falls, which had a population of 29,357 in 2013 according to the U.S. Census Bureau, spent $75,776 on civil legal fees charged by Hawley Troxell in fiscal 2014. The amount was slightly lower than the four previous years.

"The contracted civil attorney fees are beginning to level off," Faulkner said. "The city's counsel is involved in all facets of city business such as land use, personnel, code enforcement and policy and occasionally drafts ordinances and resolutions."

Hawley Troxell also provides services to several other area cities, so the availability of having an attorney down the hall needs to be weighed when considering if and when the city hires its own attorney, Faulkner said.

The city uses William Herrington of Herrington and Associates, Inc. at its attorney at Planning and Zoning Commission meetings and $2,833 was paid to that firm in fiscal 2014.

Faulkner said, on occasion, the city needs to seek outside counsel on matters that aren't handled by Hawley Troxell and previously Mason and Stricklin.

That was the case when the city paid Givens Pursley of Boise $6,958 this year, $30,368 in fiscal 2014 and $130,021 in fiscal 2013 for services related to the Spokane River cleanup process mandated by the federal government.

The city's prosecutor's office, which consists of two attorneys, a full-time secretary and a half-time secretary, prosecutes misdemeanor criminal cases that occur with the city.

The city spent a total of $259,377 on the prosecutor operations in fiscal 2014, the lowest amount in the past five years. Most of the amount - $243,960 of it - was spent on employee compensation and benefits since it is a service department.

Prosecutor Joel Ryan's hourly pay is $39.26, while deputy prosecutor Pat Kiernan makes $27.54.

Ryan said the number of cases his office has prosecuted has fluctuated between 2,000 and 2,500 per year in recent years. The office was involved in 2,117 hearings in fiscal 2014. (Some cases are thrown out and are not prosecuted.)

He said supervised DUI and domestic violence diversion treatment programs have been a win-win in recent years.

"They've taken some of the workload off for both us and the officers," Ryan said.

By comparison, the prosecutor's office was involved in 2,535 hearings in 2009.

He said most of his office's cases involve traffic or DUI infractions.

The total amount Post Falls spent on legal fees - civil and criminal - in fiscal 2014 was $335,153, the lowest amount in the past five years. Faulkner said he expects that number to be about the same this fiscal year.

Faulkner said he believes Post Falls has kept legal fees as reasonable as possible, but it continually evaluates if changes can make them even better.

"I have worked for other municipalities and normally the legal department has a much larger staff than what we have," he said. "Post Falls makes good use of the current legal sources available, but there might be a time in the next few years where we need to hire an on-staff city attorney."