Editor:

It was announced during the last council meeting that the city of Fairhope’s legal bills for the month of September alone total $183,000. This new fact, coupled with the earlier revelation by the Courier that the city is averaging about $750,000 per year on legal fees, means that the city is seriously hemorrhaging funds due to legal obligations during one of the worst economies on record.

The city of Fairhope is small and should not encumber such a large monthly legal retainer. Moreover, is the city not trying to settle these lawsuits in which it is apparently entangled? It seems that the suits are extremely costly to litigate, evidenced by our recent bills.

These exorbitant legal invoices have quietly been paid for over a year since the new council took office. Unfortunately, it is business as usual. Nothing is being done to change the status quo. If this wasteful practice continues for another year until the spring when the Dyas lawsuit is said to resume in court, we will have spent close to another million dollars on legal bills with nothing to show for it.

End the exorbitant legal fees and the overt unfairness that has brought on a record number of lawsuits against the city.

Fairhope

Editor’s Note: The Fairhope Courier reported in a news story published Oct. 17, 2009 that the city of Fairhope paid Hand Arendall law firm $181,329 in September. It further reported that the projected legal expenditures reported in the city’s amended budget for last year was $460,403 compared to the $300,000 budgeted for Fiscal Year 2010, which began Oct. 1.

In a June 13, 2009 news story the Courier reported that attorney fees totaling $1,704,091 were paid from FY 2006 through May 2009 to five firms, including Hand Arendall.