FAIRHOPE, Alabama—For the first nine months of this fiscal year, Mobile-based Hand Arendall received more than half of the city’s nearly $400,000 in legal fees paid to private attorneys and law firms.

The total legal fees expenditures for both general and utility funds from October 2011 through June 2012 were $389,411.

As of June, the total general fund expenditure for legal fees was $378,922, of which the Hand Arendall law firm received $243,380, according to information provided by the city in response to a public records request by The Fairhope Courier.

Of those general fund expenditures, Caine O’Rear, a partner at Hand Arendall, received $139,878, the largest fee paid to any of the attorneys identified in all firms, and more than any other private firm working for the city, except his own, during the current fiscal year.

Those legal fees expenditures are paid to private attorneys and law firms for representing the city, its officials and/or staff, in a variety of lawsuits and legal matters.

Although state law requires that written contracts and prior City Council approval are required before the award of such private attorney contracts, Fairhope has a long history of not following that law.

The failure of the city to comply with the law was disclosed in a series of articles by The Courier in 2010, for which it won a first-place award in the Freedom of Information—First Amendment category in the 2011 Alabama Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest.

With a few exceptions, the city continues to retain private attorneys and firms without written contracts or prior council approval.

For the 2012 fiscal year, the largest fees paid to Hand Arendall have resulted from the so-called “Dyas Triangle” litigation, in which the firm largely prevailed on behalf of the city.

Filed by members of the Dyas family in 2008 over what it contended were illegal efforts by the city to thwart development at its property bordered by U.S. 98, State Highway 104 and Veteran’s Drive, and unfairly favoring development at the so-called “Corte Rectangle” across U.S. 98 where the Publix Super Market shopping center is now located, the lawsuit is now on an “administrative docket” in Baldwin County Circuit Court.

Other firms and amounts of general fund legal expenditures paid by the city through June of this fiscal year are as follows: The Kullman Firm, $67,831; Wilkins Bankster Biles & Wynn, $46,420; Vincent B. Kilborn, $20,648; and Stone Granade Crosby, $644.

The Kilborn expenditure was for legal representation of Police Chief Bill Press to defend against an ethics complaint initiated by Mayor Tim Kant in 2010 over allegations of improper use of a private police account. That account predated Press’ appointment to the chief’s position in 2009, but Kant questioned whether its use to pay off-duty police officers was ethical. The ethics complaint was dismissed by the Alabama Ethics Commission in August 2011, and Press requested that his fees to Kilborn be paid by the city.

During Press’ first appearance before the council after his appointment, he raised concerns about how off-duty police employment was handled by the city. Kant’s letter, which initiated the stated ethics complaint, followed less than a year later.