Council member challenges mayor’s legal expenses

Councilwoman Sherri Myers shared this report from Ann Regan on her battle to gather the facts on the city of Pensacola’s legal expenses since Mayor Ashton Hayward has taken office. Regan has sent it to several members of the Pensacola City Council:

Over the past three plus years of Mayor Ashton Hayward’s administration, the city has paid over 50 outside private law firms and attorneys over $4 million for legal services. In most cases documentation supporting payment of these fees either cannot be found or does not cover all of the work being done. This is according to city records obtained by Councilwoman Sherri Myers for support of her recently passed amendments to the city code.

Current ordinances don’t require the mayor to obtain City Council approval for legal services’ contracts. The city ordinances that require the mayor to get Council’s approval for contracts over $25,000 or over $100,000 for qualified small businesses do not cover purchases of legal services. “That’s because contracts for legal services are open ended and usually reflect only hourly fee rates and do not contain the anticipated total cost of the legal services,” Myers explained.

The ordinances, which are up for a second reading at the City Council’s meeting on Thursday, would close that loop hole. The ordinances provide that the Mayor report to Council when payment to a single outside attorney or law firm exceeds $25,000 during any fiscal year. In addition, they require that all purchases of outside legal services be documented and that those records be kept by the City Attorney.

In researching the administration’s purchase of legal services, Myers requested copies of contracts for five of the highest paid outside legal firms. One of the firms was the law firm of Allen, Norton and Blue P.A. of Tallahassee to whom the city has paid over $566,000 for legal services over the past three years. The city could not produce any contract or other documentation with Allen, Norton and Blue to support paying the fees.

In addition, Myers’ requested documents from outside attorney, John Trawick, of the Coastal Association Law Group, regarding his work for city. Among other work, Trawick had written a letter to Robert DeVarona regarding vacating his restaurant at the airport to make way for the new concessionaires. The letter sparked a lawsuit against the City by DeVarona which De Varona won.

Trawick responded to Myers’ that there was no documentation as to the work he was doing for the city nor for his hourly fee. He wrote Myers that his “representation of the City of Pensacola is a verbal ongoing arrangement with the City.” Despite the lack of documentation for the work, when Trawick presented his invoices, they were paid by the city’s Finance Director, Dick Barker.

Likewise, Myers asked the City Attorney, Jim Messer, for documentation for the work done by the law firms of Beggs & Lane and by Lewis, Longman, & Walker P.A. to whom the city has paid over $582,500 and over $388,500 respectively over a period of about 3 years. The contracts produced by Messer for work done by Beggs & Lane were for litigation work regarding construction at the airport and the Saenger Theater. No documentation was produced for legal work done on the Myers v. Hayward lawsuit or for work done on the DeVarona lawsuit or any other matter.

The contract with Lewis, Longman & Walker dated September 11, 2013 is for potential litigation with the ECUA “and any future new matters as requested by the City.”

Later, Myers requested from Messer any agreements between the city and a list of over 30 outside attorneys that did work for the city. Messer emailed Myers that he couldn’t help and advised that he had forwarded Myers’ request to Colleen Castille, the City Administrator, for the information. Castille replied to Messer, “these are attorneys you had a hand in secting (sic) and I see this as squarely in your court.” Myers said she did not receive the requested agreements.

At the June 12, City Council meeting, Councilwoman Myers presented ordinances to fix the process for purchasing legal services and, as Myers said, to help assure responsible payment for legal services and transparency for the public. The City Council passed the ordinances unanimously.

The ordinances amend two sections of the current City Code, sections 3-3-2 and 3-1-8.

The amendment to section 3-3-2 requires, first, that the city’s need for legal services from outside private attorneys be documented by the requesting party and acknowledged by the city attorney and that those documents be maintained by the city attorney.

Second, the amendment requires that any engagement of outside attorneys be in writing and describe the terms of engagement.

The amendment to section 3-1-8 would require that the Mayor report to the City Council when the payment of fees for legal services to any one law firm or attorney exceeds $25,000. Thereafter, the Mayor is required to keep the Council updated on the fees being paid to that vendor.

Myers said that she has been frustrated in her efforts to inquire into the city’s process for paying outside attorneys.

“In 2012, I asked Dick Barker for all the invoices for the lawyers that the city had hired over the last couple of years. I was told it would cost me between $450 and $500 to get the records.”

Myers said that as a city official and council member she should not have to pay exorbitant fees to discover how the city is spending taxpayer money and to do her job under the Charter.

“These amendments to the city code will assure that the city council and, most importantly, the public receive complete and accurate information on the administration’s spending of taxpayer money on purchasing outside legal services,” Myers said.