Divisive issue of extension keeps lawyers logging hours
By Doug Nurse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, November 02, 2008
The city of Milton has blown through its budget for legal fees by more than $100,000.
The biggest money-eater wasn’t its fight against billboards, although that consumed a chunk of change; and it wasn’t a drawn-out battle with an adult business —- because there aren’t any in Milton.
The biggest legal cost was the City Council’s protracted and contentious efforts to sort out a sewer policy, which ate up $52,200 of the $180,000 set aside for lawyerly consultations. By Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, the overall tab for legal fees was $281,400.
Mayor Joe Lockwood said the council, which was bitterly divided 4-3 on what the policy should be, frequently sought the opinion and assurance of the city’s lawyers.
“It was a very heated topic,” Lockwood said. “We had people running absolutely everything by the city attorneys rather than relying on staff. Some City Council members copy the city attorneys on every e-mail they send.”
There are a couple of reasons why developing the sewer policy has cost so much.
First, it was a complicated issue involving confusing or imprecise maps over where sewer could go, vested rights issues by property owners, and Fulton County’s inconsistent sewer policies for the area.
Second, sewer has been used as a growth management tool in Milton.
Sewer extension was the issue, with one faction of the City Council saying that if anybody new received sewer service, it was “sewer extension,” hence pro-growth and an enemy of Milton. The other faction defined sewer extension as adding sewer outside the area served by county sewer.
The argument was long and bitter. With a divided council, it was a legal and political minefield.
City Attorney Ken Jarrard said the demands of the council required him to spend a lot of time researching past policies of Fulton County, how they were applied, how they fit into law and state policies, and what the city could and couldn’t do.
“I knew a thousand set of eyes would check this research, and this analysis would be picked apart by a lot of very intelligent people,” Jarrard said.
“The City Council lives and breathes this stuff. You leave a loose end at your peril.”
An analysis of Jarrard’s records shows that Councilwoman Julie Zahner Bailey, an avid opponent of sewer, polled the lawyers with more sewer-related queries than anyone else on the council. Between October 2007 and September 2008, Zahner Bailey e-mailed Jarrard’s law firm, Jarrard & Davis, 16 times with sewer questions. She also called 17 times.
Councilwoman Tina D’Aversa was next with eight e-mails on sewer and six telephone calls.
Jarrard said his Cumming law firm, which provides legal advice to Forsyth, Cherokee, Barrow and Franklin counties, doesn’t normally get any more calls or e-mails from Milton than from the other governments it advises.
But Jarrard acknowledged a spike in e-mails as the sewer issue heated up over the summer. He said it seems to be settling down now.
Mark Scott, former Milton city attorney, said the discord on the City Council played a role in the outsized legal bills.
“People had different visions of the city and what it was all about,” said Scott. “There was conflict on the council, and people wanted legal advice to support their arguments. It drags you into the middle, but that’s part of the job.”
CITY COMPARISONS
MILTON
> Population: 20,000
> 2007-2008 total budget: $17.78 million
> 2007-2008 legal budget: $180,000
> 2007-2008 legal expenses: $281,000
ACWORTH
> Population: 20,700
> 2008 total budget: $11.37 million
> 2008 legal services budget: $107,500
> 2008 legal expenditures to date: $62,900
DULUTH
> Population: 27,000
> 2007-2008 total budget: $45.39 million
> 2007-2008 legal services budget: $85,000
> 2007-2008 legal expenses: $80,950
JOHNS CREEK
> Population: 65,000
> 2007-2008 total budget: $44.15 million
> 2007-2008 legal services budget: $729,000
> 2007-2008 legal expenses: $569,000
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