In light of City Attorney Stephanie Atigh’s upcoming departure, Mayor Ignacio Velazquez indicated he wants to move toward a contract arrangement for legal services instead of hiring a new, permanent city attorney.
There may be some pushback against the idea on the Hollister City Council, though.
Councilman Victor Gomez released a memo to other officials and the media late Friday indicating he supports having a permanent city attorney based at Hollister City Hall.
Atigh and City Manager Clint Quilter are each departing about six months after the election of Hollister’s first at-large mayor, Velazquez.
Quilter, city manager the past nine years, is resigning to become public works director for Inyo County. The council fired Atigh, who has been city attorney since August 2006. She will receive six months salary and health benefits, according to an agenda for Monday’s council meeting, and as stipulated in her contract in the event she was let go.
Quilter is leaving July 19. Atigh is departing June 20. By then, Velazquez said he expects the council to have a contracted firm on board.
“I definitely expect cost savings,” Velazquez said. “That’s part of the new direction – making sure we’re providing better services for the community for less money.”
According to the most recent figures on the state controller’s online database, from 2011, Atigh made $132,449 in total wages and Quilter made $121,485.
Including benefits, Atigh’s total cost to the city was somewhere around $178,000 annually.
Gomez, however, contended that hiring a contracted, private firm could cost more and leave a much bigger dent in the $14 million general fund.
In his memo, he calculated that if the city ends up needing a private firm for a 40-hour week – figuring rates of $150 to $300 an hour – it would cost up to $576,000 per year.
Gomez, meanwhile, will have at least one other adversary on the matter aside from the mayor. Councilman Robert Scattini has been continually harping on what he views as excessive city attorney costs. He pointed to her compensation nearing $180,000 and said he wasn’t fond of her four-day work week at city hall.
Scattini also claimed that the city was routinely shelling out thousands of dollars at a time for outside attorneys as well, sometimes $2,000 or $3,000 in certain months, as noted in agenda warrants.
A precise amount spent on outside attorneys is not immediately available, but the Free Lance has requested a figure from the most recently completed fiscal year, 2011-12.
“My personal feeling is,” Scattini said, “the advantages is, if we get a contract that saves a lot of expense in the city, we’re not paying for vacation, medical …”
Velazquez mentioned an expectation to use the League of California Cities in the search process and said the city will put out a request for proposals to interested attorneys.
“It’s not really much of an issue, to be honest with you,” he said.
He said he doesn’t see a downside to contracting out the work, stressing how law firms can maintain certain specialties that could be useful for Hollister.
“I think there’s more upside than there is downside,” he said.
