FLORENCE — The Florence City Council met Monday evening and, amongst a smattering of other issues, such as financial reviews, requests for aid, and potential arborist contracts, the issue of hiring a permanent city attorney was discussed.
City Manager Tom Piltingsrud brought forward the re-application for the position by local attorney Brock Miller to the council’s attention for discussion.
The response was lukewarm.
Councilman Rudl Mergelman and Mayor Paul Villigrana seemed on board with the idea of hiring a local entity.
“I would like to make a motion that we offer Brock Miller the position of city attorney,” Mergelman said.
Several council members strongly disagreed.
“My concern is this is being done in a way of the old city government,” said councilwoman Kathryn Johanna Nabors. “Hiring people that are not prepared or have the experience to handle the position and I have great concerns anytime you move someone into a position under these circumstances, there’s a lot of room for error.”
Nabors cited that Miller’s paralegal possessed questionable items on her initial background check.
Councilman Steve Wolfe asked if Piltingsrud had received responses from either applicant regarding the questionnaires sent to them. Piltingsrud said, yes, however, the applicants’ respective responses were not included in the city council’s packet for the night’s meeting but can be attained through the interim city clerk.
Mergelman then reiterated his admiration of Miller as an attorney but also highlighted his personal desire to move forward.
“We’ve got some legal questions coming up from residents … and we just get further and further behind,” he said. “Two months is plenty of time to make a decision and give us an attorney.”
Buoying Nabors’ concerns, councilwoman Gibson had similar thoughts.
“He’s (Miller) attended one city council meeting in the three years that he has lived here,” she said. “He doesn’t have any of this type of experience, we’re going to be going backward again.”
Mayor Villagrana described his desire for a local person to be selected as the new city attorney.
“We do need a lawyer and I don’t think that very many more months of going on searching for one is going to solve our problem. I think we need one as soon as possible,” he said.
The divide deepened to the point that councilman James Vanhoutan recommended tabling the possibility until the next meeting — at which time Mergelman rescinded his motion.
Several Florence residents had questions about the possibility of the new city attorney, chief among them Tim Jordan and Kathy Madonna.
Jordan pointed out that the $75,000 budgeted for the city attorney may not be enough to lure a stellar attorney to the city of Florence.
“Brock Miller may want to come here, but we may not be able to afford him,” he said.
Madonna cited the general drama of the city and her hopes that the city will be diligent in its search.
“We rushed in and everybody thought Sean Garret was a good guy…that was a rushed decision that would not have been a good decision,” she said. “We are in a situation where we’ve got multiple lawsuits, we’ve got a trial coming up, we need protection and just because we’ve got a lawyer doesn’t mean he’s a lawyer that we need.”
The council then moved on to other business, which included a discussion regarding the hiring process for the next city manager.
Wolfe made a motion to create a sub-committee of three Florence city staff members and two city council members that would develop job search goals, such as job description, job requirements, salary expectations, selection process, and timeframe for the new city manager. He also posited the possibility of locating a search firm to conduct the hiring process.
Interim city attorney Nick Poppe recommended that the item be open for further discussion in future council meetings — to which Wolfe agreed and rescinded the motion.
It will likely be open for discussion at the Oct. 17 city council meeting.
