City hall has lacked an in-house lawyer since Myron Gulka-Tiechko retired in July, which is why Coun. Dawn Luhning wants external lawyers to review all sensitive files until a new solicitor is hired.
During the Dec. 6 regular meeting, Luhning introduced a motion to have all outstanding, current, and future legal files and agreements sent to external counsel for review and opinion, effective immediately. This would remain in effect until a new city solicitor comes on board.
After discussion, council voted 4-3 against the motion. In favour were councillors Luhning, Heather Eby and Jamey Logan, while opposed were Mayor Clive Tolley and councillors Kim Robinson, Crystal Froese and Doug Blanc.
Hunting for a new solicitor
City hall has no in-house legal counsel and has hired a national headhunting firm to find a new solicitor, said city manager Jim Puffalt. Meanwhile, they are following legal templates that were previously laid out. If contracts or agreements are beyond those templates, city hall sends the documents to outside legal parties for review.
City administration asks five questions about any contract or agreement before determining whether to handle it internally or externally, he added. Sending out such documents costs between $500 and $600 per hour.
Outside opinion needed
Luhning believed that city administration was performing its duties well in the short term with handling legal files but still wanted the opinion of an outside lawyer to review agreements since she was not a legal expert.
“I’m on the hook if something goes wrong anywhere. And until we have a city solicitor in that chair, I think it’s only prudent of us to ensure that we have the legal opinions to execute these day-to-date agreements,” she said, noting businesses and corporations acquire legal opinions on issues every day.
Luhning pointed out that she couldn’t work on assumptions since her job was to help ensure council’s bases were covered if an issue returned to hit them in the face. While there would be costs to this initiative, they would be less than future legal expenses against the city.
She added that she regularly came to city hall to sign stacks of agreements that the public rarely saw when she was acting mayor.
Eby agreed with Luhning, saying while Puffalt does good work as the city manager, he is not the solicitor or legal counsel.
“We are not trying to circumvent what is going on. … We are now giving the direction and permission to use external legal counsel for all agreements to ensure we have all our Is dotted and Ts crossed,” she added.
Duplication of work
Robinson was opposed because he thought the motion was something city administration was already handling and it would cost money that council didn’t need to spend. He also thought that large stacks of documents meant many agreements were “frivolous.”
Mayor Tolley understood what Luhning wanted but noted most agreements are standard files, while this motion would capture every document. He thought Puffalt should use his discretion to determine which documents would put council in jeopardy and ensure those were vetted. This would create less work.
He added that if work needs to be sent to external parties, he wanted that material sent to local lawyers.
Blanc and Froese both thought it wasn’t necessary to spend extra money to perform the same work outside when city administration was using existing in-house templates to address files. Meanwhile, Blanc said he agreed with Tolley about giving community lawyers the work if it needs to be performed elsewhere.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Dec. 13.
