by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Facing an upcoming restrictive fiscal year, the City Council is expected to make several cuts to its annual operating budget. And though the sum of the entire reduction could amount to more than $500,000, individual cuts are for the most part minor.
Once passed, Council members could find themselves having to be somewhat more mindful of their postage, promotion and travel expenses. But it’s their use of attorneys in the City’s General Counsel’s Office that could be facing the biggest cut.
As suggested by Council auditor Richard Wallace and director Cheryl Brown, legal presence at biweekly Council committee meetings will likely be substantially phased out.
“We’ve looked at all kinds of ways to cut legal costs,” Wallace said. “And quite frankly the only way we can do that is to cut attorneys.”
Currently, at least one attorney sits in at each of the Council’s eight standing committees which include Finance, Rules, and Land Use and Zoning. At those meetings, City attorneys are frequently asked to opine on a wide variety of topics.
But, regardless of the number of times they speak, every minute they spend in Council chambers is a minute they add to their time sheets.
Council president Elaine Brown, whose presidential term will expire at the end of the month, said attorneys will remain at Finance and LUZ meetings, but will be cut elsewhere.
“We’ll be changing the way we do business a bit,” Brown said, “Instead of having the attorneys at the remaining committee meetings, we’ll rely on the expertise of our Council auditors and researchers.”
That approximate 10 percent reduction in legal services could save the Council about $92,000 next year.
“It’s a reduction in services that won’t impede our ability to work for the taxpayers,” Brown said, “It’s a smart move in a tight budget year.
“We could save a lot of money by just picking up the phone and asking a question.”
Wallace added that attorneys who lighten their committee load should have no problem finding work in other City departments.
“Just because they won’t be in the majority of the Council committee meetings anymore doesn’t mean they won’t be used somewhere else,” Wallace said.
Cheryl Brown will present the clipped Council budget to Mayor John Peyton’s Budget Review Committee today at noon. Peyton will incorporate those numbers into his overall annual budget, which will be introduced for Council approval in July.