Anchorage is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on outside legal counsel due to a shortage of city attorneys.
At a news conference Tuesday, Mayor Dave Bronson said the city is struggling to hire attorneys because of competition from the state and private sector.
“I’ve directed HR to do a city-wide salary survey and from that, which we hope will be completed soon, we can get to the point where we can start paying, more competitively, our municipal employees,” Bronson said.
Last month, Municipal Attorney Anne Helzer asked a judge to delay the timeline for setting trial dates on a lawsuit filed by Benedicte Galligan, a former Anchorage fire department employee. She noted that, at the time, the department only had six attorneys and they all had full case loads.
This week, the Anchorage Assembly approved paying Anchorage law firm Sedor, Wendlandt, Evans and Filippi up to $250,000 to provide legal services for a different lawsuit, this one filed by former Municipal Manager Amy Demboski. Clint Campion, an attorney with the firm, will take the lead on the Demboski case, according to a letter from Helzer to the city’s purchasing director. Campion has also been representing the city in the Galligan lawsuit since early September. City officials did not immediately respond to questions Tuesday about how much the city is paying Campion for work on that case.
Assembly Vice Chair Meg Zaletel, an attorney, said if the city doesn’t fill vacancies in its Department of Law, it may need to rely on outside counsel more in the future. That could cost the city more money and it also wouldn’t build up expertise on the city’s legal team, she said.
“I’d mentioned previously that we’ve lost a lot of institutional knowledge,” she said. “Well you don’t build it by paying outside attorneys to do it.”
Bronson said he’s working to fill the attorney vacancies. But Zaletel said she’s also concerned about how long it’ll take to get new hires trained on city legal affairs.
“We need attorneys to review proposed legislation, proposed contracts, leases,” Zaletel said. “There’s so many pieces of municipal work that have a legal review step, especially if we’re doing it well. And we’re protecting the municipal interest, and protecting the municipal interest is protecting the taxpayer interests.”
Zaletel said last year, the Assembly approved increasing municipal attorneys salaries by roughly 20%, and she’s hopeful the boost will help build the law department back up to full capacity. According to an online jobs board, the city is currently hiring four attorneys and several other positions in the municipal attorney’s office.
Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
