Worth Repeating-Councilman Lindsey Proposes Legal Expense Reform Effort

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City Councilman Al Lindsey
City Councilman Al Lindsey

We recently had  inquiries by our readers concerning the current status of a proposal announced on October  16, 2013 by 6th Ward City Councilman Al Lindsey to appoint a  “Blue Ribbon”exploratory study committee to look at ways to reduce  legal costs paid to the Mayors legal counsel.  We hope that Evansville City Council members will support Mr. Linsey’s request to appoint this tax saving study committee because it has the potential to save the taxpayers of Evansville hundred of thousands of tax of dollars.   

If our memory serves us correctly, last year City Council approved about a $600,000 for the Mayor’s legal counsel operating budget.  This figure doesn’t include any general liability claims work, workman comp issues, bond council work or ERC contracts.

Attached is the article that Mr. Lindsey submitted to us in October of  last year for your review and discussion.

Citizens of Evansville,

As your fellow citizen and the City Councilman from the 6th Ward I have finally had it with the exorbitant legal fees that the department of  the legal counsel for the Mayor of  City of Evansville is spending. Last week it came out that the legal tab for the Mayors legal department counsel spent in 2012 for the City of Evansville and the Water and Sewer Utility amounted to $2.9 Million. That is over an 80% increase in just the last 5 years. How many of you have seen your pay increased by 80% during the recession? I know I sure as heck haven’t as a member of the Evansville Fire Department or as a City Councilman. Quite frankly it would be inappropriate for a lifetime public servant to see such an increase in hard times.

So why have the legal bills of the City of Evansville Mayors legal department exploded faster than the City of Evansville healthcare premiums and what the heck can we do about it? The bulk of our legal work is contracted out by the hour so the only answers are that we are either being hit with higher rates or being billed for more hours.

It may be time for the City of Evansville to have its own legal department. Now I am not a math whiz but I am pretty good at arithmetic and I divided that $2.9 Million by the $150 per hour that is customary for attorneys to bill the city and came up with a little over 19,000 hours of lawyers time that the city must be getting billed for. If there are 2,000 working hours in a year one more division problem leads me to a need for 10 staff lawyers to handle all of the city’s needs.

I have also been told by reliable sources that the City of Evansville legal fees charged by the Mayors legal counsel and his firm in 2013 could be over $3 million dollars.

I am pretty sure the Mayor of the City of Evansville can hire lawyers around here for less than $280,000 per year so my proposal is to put together a blue ribbon exploratory committee to see what it would take for the city of Evansville to have its own legal team. If we can pull this off and can hire 10 lawyers and someone to boss them for about $100,000 each we can save the city nearly $2 Million bucks a year.Mole

I for one can think of lots of basic services that could benefit from having an extra $2 Million for the city to appropriate for critical services or infrastructure.

Thank You,

Al Lindsey, City Councilman
Evansville, IN 6th Ward

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON OCTOBER 16, 2013 BY CCO WITHOUT OPINION, BIAS OR EDITING.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

17 COMMENTS

  1. I am glad Councilman Lindsey is concerned about these outrageous fees, but nothing will change if all he does is write a letter to the CCO !

    Lindsey needs to:

    –Name his Blue Ribbon panel, list qualifications;

    –Describe the scope of what they intend to do/ desired outcomes;

    –Come up with a budget for the project (presuming the Blue Ribbon group will be compensated, or not);

    –Lobby support from fellow members of Council;

    –Bring it to a vote when adequate support is in place;

    –Execute the Action Plan;

    –Transparency big time–let the chips fall where they may and let the Citizens know what’s going on; and

    –Corrective Action Plan to reign in these expenses

    Franklin

  2. Joe, I wonder if Weaver had a token shitty apartment in town to run for office you’d report on it? I don’t care for Weaver either, mainly just pointing out your selective reporting.

    • Ah, you changed the subject from wealth to Weaver. The answer is yes, we would report on it if we knew about it. We learned about Lindsey’s tribulations when it became part of a public document and an investigative person with a camera stalking his whereabouts. Of course we would report it if someone filed a complaint about Weaver’s residence or pulled a papparatzi on him.

          • I searched and saw it now. I wasn’t reading the CCO then. My main point is that Lindsey is a good ole boy too, just in a different circle.

          • Ghost…..

            Curious as to which club (circle) your referring to? He’s not liked by the Democrats, he’s not part of the Mosby dynasty (in fact hated by them), he is a firefighter but I doubt he’s well liked by the current crop in power there, he was kinda’ set up by his peers on the council (remember the Maingate fiasco?) unless he’s created his own circle I’m not sure which one your talking about. He wasn’t one of the Democratic traitors who backed our mayor’s election, he did support Mr Davis, Now if you mean good ol’ boy as in he’s a good guy some might agree?

            Is there a new circle? not that I really care but if your gonna’ make that statement go the extra mile and define it for us please.

            JMHO

          • LOL….that’s it? I’m sure he could have come up with that idea all on his own, not like it’s the first time residency has played a role in a election.

            Maybe so, but I’ve always viewed Lindsey as a maverick in the Democratic party, he’s hated enough by his fellow Dems to be setup not protected, he is hated by the Mosby’s which makes him A-OK in my book.

            (Disclaimer)

            I have had the opportunity to talk to him one on one and find him to be down to earth and what I’d call a common man, not the most articulate but he can get his point across sometimes with colorful language, but I didn’t get the impression he was out to help himself but rather the community and my gut told me the same thing.

            I’ve talked to most of the council members over the last few years and he was one of the few that came off as genuine.

            But it is JMHO

          • Anyone who drinks while on the public tit (firefighter payroll) and lies about his address for a political position has already proven himself is a dishonest man in my book. Oh and he lied again in the aftermath saying he thought he was drinking mountain dew. What a joke, no adult outside of Utah doesn’t know the difference.

  3. Councilman Lindsay:

    Take the $ 2. 9 Million, and separate it from special projects (i.e., bond issues) and ‘regular business’.

    Get a copy of Ziemer’s contract with the City, and see if it’s reasonable for the ‘regular business’ matters.

    Also define why it is that numerous law firms around town are getting paid as well. The CCO published this list a while back.

    I agree with the earlier poster: hard to get your arms around the extent of the problem without some initial intel to provide a frame of reference.

    • Ziemer contributed $ 45,000 to Winnecke’s campaign BEFORE the election. Looks like that contribution had some strings attached.

      Agree with the earlier posters:

      Look at Ziemer’s contract. How much/ and WHAT types of cases are covered;

      Look at everything outside that Ziemer contract. Is that why all these other firms are also feeding at the trough (i.e., speciaties not available through Ziemer) ?

      Look at the rates being charged, types of specialties needed.

      Compare to prior years (hard to believe it would be any more than under JW’s time).

      And then draw conclusions. My guess: this Administration is all about secrecy, so you’ll find stupid shit like they won’t fill a FOIA Request until a lawyer signs off on it ! Radical idea: make everything except personnel files a public document, and save jillions !!!

      • Zeimers contract is a public document so why not just post it here for all to see?

  4. Time for the Mayor and the Council to call in an outsider consulting firm,– to see if Evansville needs a bigger “trough”. An 80% increase in 5yrs indicates there maybe a need.

  5. I may be wrong, but I suspect you will find some political donations from the same law firms profiting for this. Correlation may not be causation but it might be.

Comments are closed.