FORNEY, Texas — Midway through the 2016 fiscal year, the City of Forney has exceeded its $154,000 legal services budget by nearly $65,000 thanks in part to a six-figure bill from a law firm that worked for the city for five weeks, city documents indicate.
FORNEY, Texas — Midway through the 2016 fiscal year, the City of Forney has exceeded its $154,000 legal services budget by nearly $65,000 thanks in part to a six-figure bill from a law firm that worked for the city for five weeks, city documents indicate.
A majority of the shortfall comes from the legal representation provided by council-appointed firm Bell, Nunnally, and Martin, L.L.P., which billed the City of Forney for $116,670.31, according to city documents. A third-party company also billed the city $13,671.96 for work related to a council-approved internal employee investigation led by the firm.
By fiscal year’s end, Finance Director Deborah Woodham said, during a mid-year budget report during Tuesday night’s city council meeting, the legal services budget would likely exceed the current budget by $200,000.
Bell, Nunnally, and Martin, L.L.P. was appointed as city attorney by the Forney City Council, without proper notification on its posted agenda, on Dec. 15.
On Jan. 19, the Forney City Council appointed a new interim city attorney after finding the firm previously represented Mayor Rick Wilson on several instances, posing a potential conflict of interest.
Daniels said Bell, Nunnally, and Martin, L.L.P. represented the City of Forney for approximately five weeks and a majority of the fees charged were associated with the council-approved internal investigation.
The investigation, according to Interim City Manager Charles Daniels, revolved around various employees, employee e-mails, checks, and other forms of electronic communications.
“To my knowledge, the investigation concluded several months ago,” stated Daniels. “There were no disciplinary actions or legal actions that I am aware of and that includes written reprimands or verbal counseling.”
An inquiry also revealed there was no official record of the city council requesting the investigation nor was it ever presented to the public during a city council meeting. Instead, Daniels said the decision was likely made by the city council in an executive session — which would have been closed to the public.
Because a separate engagement letter was not produced for the internal investigation nor were specific details on file with the City of Forney, Daniels was unable to provide a specific breakdown of the costs between ordinary course matters and non-ordinary course matters billed by the firm.
An inForney.com public information request for invoices and supporting documents to determine the scope of work performed was forwarded to the Texas Attorney General’s Office for a ruling on redacting certain items from the documents.
Per the city’s engagement letter with Bell, Nunnally, and Martin, L.L.P., the City of Forney was to be charged a flat fee of $25,000 per month for ordinary course matters with additional hours being billable and overages being credited back to the city. An hourly rate sheet was never supplied to the city, according to several inForney.com public information requests.
Currently, the City of Forney’s legal services budget is at 142 percent with $218,679 already spent, according to Woodham’s mid-year report, with city records indicating approximately $130,000 is associated with Bell, Nunnally, and Martin, L.L.P.’s work and the other costs associated with the former counsel’s, Brown & Hofmeister, L.L.P., and the current interim city attorney’s, McKamie Krueger L.L.P., monthly payments in their ordinary course work and municipal prosecution.
Additionally, the city manager’s budget and the human resources budget will likely be over $150,000 and $20,000, respectively, stated Woodham.
The city manager budget is experiencing overages due to former City Manager Brian Brooks’ resignation and a council-approved $183,702.84 severance package while the human resources budget took on the burden of executive searches to fill the vacancies at city manager and for an in-house city attorney.
Woodham says the overages will be covered by a $200,000 contingency fund and additional $183,000 in undesignated fund balances.
In the 2015 fiscal year, the City of Forney paid approximately $187,500 in legal services and, in 2014, paid approximately $148,447 in legal services, according to city documents.
No additional payments are expected to be made to Bell, Nunnally, and Martin, L.L.P., according to city officials.
