Tarpon Springs takes look at its options for legal representation

TARPON SPRINGS — In these tough budgetary times, city officials are targeting every department for savings.

But a look at how Tarpon Springs handles its legal affairs has some questioning whether lawyers are overcharging the city.

And to tamp down on those fees, the option of hiring an in-house attorney instead of continuing the legal contract with the longtime firm of Frazer, Hubbard, Brandt, Trask and Yacavone has city officials pondering the issue of cost vs. quality.

"From the beginning, it has been about dollars and cents," said Commissioner Jeff Larsen, who has been questioning the attorney fees. "I'm very troubled that we have paid so much for our legal services than surrounding cities."

But Mayor David Archie questioned "at what cost" does the city search for cheaper services.

"One of the things most people do when they look for legal advice is to try to get the most competent legal advice they can afford," Archie said. "Are we trying to save a few more dollars? And get what? After everything is said and done and we save that money, what do we get for it?

"Are we dissatisfied with the firm we have now? Do we think the advice they have given us is incompetent, and we need to have some other attorney? I haven't heard that."

In fiscal year 2009, Tarpon paid $327,697 for legal services to the firm. For fiscal year 2010, the number dropped to $243,000, and $229,800 is projected for the 2011 fiscal year.

The nearly 20 percent reduction in fees is due to a recent clarification regarding what services are covered under a $76,127 retainer. The city also cut the number of advisory boards being staffed by an attorney.

"I believe that we provide exemplary legal services to the city of Tarpon Springs with a wealth and depth of knowledge in this area," said Jim Yacavone, the firm's attorney who represents the city. "Have we issued an opinion and someone came to say here are some additional facts and you change your decision? Yes, but that's the process of any lawyer."

Yacavone said that he's concerned that his "integrity" is being questioned when it comes to how the city is being billed. But complicating the matter is a July 13 in-house memo that Yacavone wrote. In the memo, he tells attorneys not to show time entries in their bills for conferring or writing e-mails to other attorneys in the firm.

Attorneys should instead "record time for the effort in some other way, just don't show it on your bill," the memo said.

"I do not believe clients (and I know this is true for Tarpon Springs) like to pay us for talking and writing to each other," Yacavone wrote in the e-mail.

In a followup memo to commissioners Friday, Yacavone said that he was not as exact as he should have been in the e-mail. What he intended to say was that the time for conferring in-house should be billed to the city's $76,127 retainer.

"Someone else will suggest that the e-mail directs members of my firm to bill time on billable files for conferring with or e-mailing other firm attorneys but not reflect that activity on the bill," Yacavone wrote. "I will admit that this is not the most articulate e-mail that I have ever written and that I could have been clearer, but the e-mail was written in a hurry and was not a polished final product."

In a presentation to commissioners last month, City Manager Mark LeCouris said having an in-house attorney would be more costly. For one attorney, two legal assistants and the materials needed to get an internal department started, it would cost the city $324,443, LeCouris said. That figure doesn't include unknown outside fees for additional legal services that might be required.

But Larsen said that it has been almost 20 years since the city looked at its legal representation. Larsen said the city should conduct a public search for the cost of a new attorney.

"I appreciate the trouble (LeCouris) went through to put this together, and it's not a matter of trust," Larsen said of LeCouris' presentation. "I think he did the best he could, but he's not the one applying for the position. It would be worthwhile to hear from those applying for the job."

Frazer, Hubbard, Brandt, Trask and Yacavone has been providing legal services for Tarpon Springs since 1995.

"You can get an attorney for $60,000 a year, but how good are they?" Yacavone asked. "You are not going to get one person that has the breadth of knowledge to handle it all."

He says it's a mistake to overlook the cost of running an in-house firm and whether that firm would have the independence to give sound legal advice.

"I think they are overlooking all those issues, for some reason or another," Yacavone said. "Either they don't understand it or they do understand and that's really not the issue."

Regardless of what happens, Larsen says the city still needs to look at the current system.

Contact Demorris A. Lee at dalee@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4174.