Memorandum 16-113 Legal Services Contract With Birch Horton Bittner & Cherot

Memorandum 16-113

TO:                       Mayor Wythe and Homer City Council

FROM:                 Katie Koester, City Manager

DATE:                  June 22, 2016

SUBJECT:         Resolution 16-076 Awarding a Contract for Legal Services to the Firm Birch Horton Bittner and Cherot

Birch Horton Bittner and Cherot have been providing legal services to the City of Homer for the past eight years and have developed a proficient understanding of our City code and community. Though the City’s primary attorney Tom Klinkner is moving to part-time, Attorney Holly Wells is very familiar with Homer and is assuming the role of lead attorney for the City. Resolution 16-049 authorizes the City Manager to negotiate a new contract with the firm which is currently before you for approval.

The contract is substantially similar to our existing contract with a few minor changes:

Section 7:

According to the existing contract, every two years a 5% increase is applied. This has been frozen for 2016 and we are operating under the same rates as 2014.

The existing contract caps the attorney hours under the monthly retainer at 50. The cap has been raised to 65 attorney hours per month. This is beneficial to the City as demand on legal services ebbs and flows and a busy month can exceed the 50-hour cap.

E.           Even though the majority of non-litigation services are performed under the cap, we are charged for research fees, title insurance premiums, and other similar charges. Section 7E requires the firm to notify me if the cost of any request exceeds $1,500. This allows some control over complicated requests that may involve a lot of research and extra expense.

The existing contract contains a 5% increase every two years. This contract changes it to a biennial increase that is the lesser of the Anchorage Consumer Price Index or 5%.

Legal services are one of our most important, but costly expenses. I am happy that we are able to curb increases and appreciate the important work Birch Horton Bittner and Cherot does for the City of Homer.