The Times-Picayune, Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Reacting to a story in The Times-Picayune this weekend, the New Orleans City Council is looking into whether Mayor Ray Nagin’s administration violated the city charter by hiring high-priced Washington lawyers without the council’s approval.
Meanwhile, City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields argued that Nagin didn’t violate the charter when he signed at least six contracts with two Washington law firms because, she said, “special counsel” and “outside counsel” are different things.
“The charter provision requiring two-thirds vote of the council to hire special counsel is only necessary when the City Attorney’s Office is not providing legal representation,” Moses-Fields said, adding that one of the firms hired, Beveridge & Diamond, “is an additional resource that complements the City Attorney’s Office, rather than supplants it.”
Former Civil Service Commission attorney and charter expert Gilbert Buras Jr. said the charter clearly requires the council to approve the contracts in question.
David Marcello, a lawyer who chaired a committee that revised the charter in 1995, said there are only two categories of city lawyers established in the charter: those in the City Attorney’s Office and “special counsel.”
“There’s no functional difference between special counsel and outside counsel,” Marcello said.
At least one former city attorney says Moses-Fields is creating a distinction between “special counsel” and “outside counsel” in an effort to explain away a clear charter violation.
“That’s like saying ‘and’ and ‘also’ are different; it’s ridiculous to make those kinds of statements,” said former City Attorney Sal Anzelmo, who served under Dutch Morial. “I think when you read that charter, there’s no question — it’s not even debatable — that the council has to approve outside counsel.”
City Council Vice President Jackie Clarkson, who signed a letter Tuesday calling on the council’s lawyer to review the practice and consider legal remedies, also refused to accept the administration’s argument.
“You can argue semantics all day long, but this is obviously a violation of the intent of the charter,” she said.
Marcello said the clearest path to challenge the administration’s actions and use of public money under the charter likely would be for a citizen to file a lawsuit in civil district court.
The Nagin administration brought on the high-end lawyers to deal mostly with litigation surrounding public records issues, including some that have been the focus of federal investigations into possible corruption in Nagin’s technology office.
In a letter to The Times-Picayune, Moses-Fields said it is “in keeping with the practices of virtually every previous mayoral administration” to hire outside counsel to supplement and report to the city attorney.
But Anzelmo said he doesn’t recall any such arrangements during his time as city attorney, in the early- and mid-1980s.
Anzelmo questioned the lawyers’ high rates and the way the city set total prices for no-bid contracts with Beveridge & Diamond PC and Kelley Drye & Warren LLP. They could end up costing taxpayers as much as $660,000, and some of the top lawyers in the contracts are slated to make upwards of $400 an hour.
Four of the six contracts are for $15,000, the maximum value allowed without having to go through a public bid process. Three of the $15,000 deals are with the same firm, Beveridge & Diamond.
“That is clearly an effort to avoid the public bid process, which protects the taxpayer,” Anzelmo said.
City Council President Arnie Fielkow and Clarkson sent a letter today to the council’s lawyer, Steven Lane, asking him to look into the issue.
“I’ve received lots of calls and e-mails on this and my job is to take appropriate action, and I’ve done that,” Fielkow said.
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/08/city_council_reviewing_mayor_n.html
