City legal fees have piled up

Over the past four years, the amount of money budgeted and spent on City legal costs has been increasing significantly every year. However, it appears that fiscal year 2016/17 may mark a turnaround.

There have been a number of prolonged lawsuits brought against the City over that time and several began even earlier, spanning over several City administrations.

One of the major goals interim City Manager Rick Allen set for himself when he took the reins at City Hall last spring was to have all the pending legal cases settled before the new permanent city manager is hired. He is almost finished with that goal.

City Finance Officer Joe O'Neill provided some figures to The Nugget regarding legal expenses.

Total legal fees for fiscal years 2013/14 through the first half of 2016/17 were as follows:

2013/2014

Budgeted $47,000

Actual $64,661

$17,661 over

2014/2015

Budgeted $51,000

Actual $74,975

$23,975 over

2015/2016

Budgeted $65,000

Actual $112.007

$47,007 over

2016/2017

Budgeted $89,504

Actual $36,563 Half year

The largest legal fees ($37,631) had to do with the departure of former City Manager Andrew Gorayeb in the spring of 2015. When those legal fees are added to Gorayeb's severance package, it cost the City $151,561.88 to terminate their relationship with Gorayeb.

Legal fees surrounding litigation involving the proposed McKenzie Meadow Village assisted-living facility and three Land Use Board of Appeals cases filed by Mark Adolf of Pinnacle Alliance Group amounted to $14,155. O'Neill said there very well could be more legal fees prior to fiscal year 2015/16. Recently MMV withdrew their application from the City and there are no pending appeals.

The recently settled litigation by former City employee Lisa Young, in which she contended that the City of Sisters had breached its settlement agreement with her when a partially redacted report was made public in which Young's name had not been redacted, cost the City $3,838 in legal fees. A settlement was agreed upon in which Young received $10,000 ($5,000 of which was covered by the City's insurance provider). The redaction had been performed by then City Attorney Steve Bryant's office.

A suit involving property owned by Dave and Sandy Marlow, located to the north of City Hall across East Main Ave., has been ongoing for a number of years. The City installed a sidewalk, which was later removed when it was discovered the City didn't own the land under the sidewalk. That case has finally been settled after going to the Court of Appeals, where a lower court ruling was reversed and the Marlows were ordered to pay their own legal bills.

Ky Karnecki sued the City three years ago over the removal of his mushroom and jerky stand when he failed to remove it at the end of his temporary permitted usage, and he was levied fines in connection with alleged code violations. He also filed a $2.5 million federal lawsuit against the City and 10 officials, claiming the City has committed conspiracy to violate his constitutional rights, tort interference of his business relationships, emotional distress, slander, and defamation.

"The Deschutes County component of his suit is complete, with no financial fines imposed," said Allen.

The federal civil rights violation case is still pending.

"We have no other litigation or pending appeals that I am aware of now that Lisa Young is settled," said Allen (other than the Karnecki federal case).

"Nothing new has been filed since I arrived. My goal is to have these all cleaned up prior to my departure," Allen told The Nugget.

Following Gorayeb's departure and the faulty redaction of a document related to Gorayeb's conduct, the City Council terminated their relationship with long-time City Attorney Bryant. The legal firm of Bryant, Lovlien and Jarvis of Bend replaced him. Attorney David Allen of Madras, who specializes in land-use cases, took over all the MMV casework.