The Clearwater City Council is considering changing the way it does business with its city attorney, Dave Lenhardt.

 

At the last city council meeting, Administrator Kevin Kress presented a proposal to change from the current hourly billing system to a retainer system.

 

“It’s a way to try to keep the expenditures down,” he told members of the council.

 

Kress said under the current system, the city gets charged at the hourly rate every time there is a brief phone call. He said that adds up.

 

Last year, the city’s legal expenses were about $10,000. Kress said he proposed setting a $6,000 annual retainer that would cover most legal matters.

 

It wouldn’t cover litigation, which would be billed at $250 per hour.

 

 It also wouldn’t cover development, zoning and permit applications. Kress said those costs are typically passed through to a third party, for example, the annexation, zoning and development costs involved with the Kwik Trip project. Legal costs for that project are reimbursed to the city.

 

Councilman Richard Petty, who was once the Clearwater City Attorney, questioned whether the retainer was a “spend down” process where the city would be billed at the hourly rate until the retainer ran out.

 

 Kress said that wasn’t the case. The retainer would cover all general municipal matters regardless of how many issues came up or calls were made.

 

He said he spoke with Lenhardt about keeping track of expenses to determine whether the $6,000 was an accurate figure to cover the work being done.

 

“For the first year we would try to see how close we are to the $6,000,” he said.

 

Kress said the retainer would allow him to consult the attorney without worrying about being billed for short 30-second calls.

 

“A lot of times I don’t call the attorney to avoid charges,” he said. “I can get opinions from the MN League of Cities, but ultimately, they want you to work with your city attorney because they’re the ones that will have to support you.”

 

Councilman Rollie Lange said the retainer was a good idea if it allowed Kress to call the attorney when he felt it was important.

 

“You should feel free to ask a question if you have a concern on behalf of the city,” he said.

 

Kress said the fee structure in the contract wouldn’t be binding.

 

“If the city wants to get out of this arrangement, we would rearrange how we would do the billing,” he said.

 

The council tabled a vote on the contract until the March meeting.