Staff Attorney Sought by Council
Unable to agree on the selection of a City Attorney, Grove City Councilors have approved a motion to seek a full-time attorney to work on staff at City Hall, 40 hours a week. Action came at Tuesday night's regular Council meeting following a one hour executive session. The vote was 4-0 with councilor Gary Trippensee absent.
Grove has been without a City Attorney since Aug. 21, when Ron Cates resigned after learning the city was to issue Request for Proposals to law firms. Cates said he did not know that he was being replaced until the council Agenda came out a few days prior to the meeting.
Five law firms responded to the RFP and it is believed Council narrowed down the list to two firms, Logan and Lowry of Grove, and the Hartley Law firm of Vinita. Council voted 3-2 to reject Hartley at the Sept. 18 open council meeting.
Councilor Mike Davenport made the motion Tuesday night to hire a full time attorney on staff. Wednesday, he said there are several advantages.
"It makes more sense, in that any trust authority board member who needs a legal opinion on an issue can ask the attorney directly. We have plenty of work to keep him busy…the city ordinances need updating, and he can help with planning and zoning issues. We will be dealing with one single attorney, not a firm that could send a different lawyer to our council meetings every two weeks. The attorney will be guaranteed a salary and benefits and not have to worry about ups and downs in income. I think we will get some good applicants but in the event this does not work out we can always go back to the proposals already received. Let's give this a chance," he said.
Davenport also noted that he visited in person with Jot Hartley and came away impressed with his background.
Councilman Terry Ryan said he supported Davenport's motion and hoped the city would get a number of good applicants.
There are 457 towns and cities that are members of the Oklahoma Municipal League and it is known that two, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, have full time attorneys on staff, both in the six figure salary bracket. Attorneys for most small cities are employed on the basis of need, paying only for services rendered on an hourly or monthly retainer basis.
Previous Grove city attorneys were hired by the City Manager, following a state statute, Title 11 Section 10-119, which requires cities to have a "department of law headed by a city attorney," and Title 11 Section 10-113 and Grove City Ordinance 2-302 "the city manager shall appoint…all heads of administrative departments…except as otherwise provided by law."
However, City Ordinance 2-501 states that the city attorney shall be "appointed by the city council for a one-year term and removable by the council."
Title 11 Section 14-101 then follows up by stating "the municipal governing body may enact ordinances, rules and regulations not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of Oklahoma…"
One could argue that the "not inconsistent" phrase takes the hiring matter away from City Council and awards it to the City Manager. In fact, three previous city attorneys have stated that the City Attorney position reports directly to the City Manager, not Council.
Currently, only the City Manager and City Treasurer report directly to the Grove City Council, per state statute.
Grove has been without a City Attorney since Aug. 21, when Ron Cates resigned after learning the city was to issue Request for Proposals to law firms. Cates said he did not know that he was being replaced until the council Agenda came out a few days prior to the meeting.
Five law firms responded to the RFP and it is believed Council narrowed down the list to two firms, Logan and Lowry of Grove, and the Hartley Law firm of Vinita. Council voted 3-2 to reject Hartley at the Sept. 18 open council meeting.
Councilor Mike Davenport made the motion Tuesday night to hire a full time attorney on staff. Wednesday, he said there are several advantages.
"It makes more sense, in that any trust authority board member who needs a legal opinion on an issue can ask the attorney directly. We have plenty of work to keep him busy…the city ordinances need updating, and he can help with planning and zoning issues. We will be dealing with one single attorney, not a firm that could send a different lawyer to our council meetings every two weeks. The attorney will be guaranteed a salary and benefits and not have to worry about ups and downs in income. I think we will get some good applicants but in the event this does not work out we can always go back to the proposals already received. Let's give this a chance," he said.
Davenport also noted that he visited in person with Jot Hartley and came away impressed with his background.
Councilman Terry Ryan said he supported Davenport's motion and hoped the city would get a number of good applicants.
There are 457 towns and cities that are members of the Oklahoma Municipal League and it is known that two, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, have full time attorneys on staff, both in the six figure salary bracket. Attorneys for most small cities are employed on the basis of need, paying only for services rendered on an hourly or monthly retainer basis.
Previous Grove city attorneys were hired by the City Manager, following a state statute, Title 11 Section 10-119, which requires cities to have a "department of law headed by a city attorney," and Title 11 Section 10-113 and Grove City Ordinance 2-302 "the city manager shall appoint…all heads of administrative departments…except as otherwise provided by law."
However, City Ordinance 2-501 states that the city attorney shall be "appointed by the city council for a one-year term and removable by the council."
Title 11 Section 14-101 then follows up by stating "the municipal governing body may enact ordinances, rules and regulations not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of Oklahoma…"
One could argue that the "not inconsistent" phrase takes the hiring matter away from City Council and awards it to the City Manager. In fact, three previous city attorneys have stated that the City Attorney position reports directly to the City Manager, not Council.
Currently, only the City Manager and City Treasurer report directly to the Grove City Council, per state statute.
Labels: City Council
posted by Editor | 2:00 AM
2 Comments:
I would guess that Grove has now joined the ranks of the two largest cities in OK by wanting to hire their own "City Attorney" on a full time basis. We must have had a hugh increase in either population or egos since the recent city elections. I suspect that we are looking at some recent law school graduate who may have just barely passed the bar with no experience in municipal law but will be willing to work for a mulitiude of different bosses for $50K per year and benefits. Yea, right on brothers (and saving the tax payers a bundle). Get real, folks.
We have our own 'Dumb and Dumber' series in Grove, America.
Ron Cates was 'encouraged' to resign due to the cost of his service and transportation.
He served the council well and now, the council is saying, hire a full-time attorney. They should have left well enough alone and allowed Mr. Cates to keep them out of trouble. I don't know who is the dumbest, some council members or the public for electing them.
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