ST. HELENA — After years of complaints about high legal bills, the city of St. Helena has hired a new legal firm.
The council voted Tuesday to approve a legal services contract with Best Best & Krieger, with partner Kara Ueda serving as city attorney. Established in 1891, the firm represents 50 other cities as city attorney and more than 700 public agencies as general or special counsel.
The city had contracted with the firm Burke, Williams & Sorensen since 2012, with Tom Brown and later Michael Biddle serving as city attorney. Biddle will continue to provide some services for the city.
Burke, Williams & Sorensen had billed the city by the hour, but the new contract with Best Best & Krieger includes a flat monthly rate of $18,000 for basic legal services, with additional per-hour rates for litigation and other special legal services.
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“We’ve done a lot recently to look at how we do our legal fees, and have been able to bring costs down,” said Mayor Geoff Ellsworth.
The city’s 2019-2020 budget sets aside $626,000 for legal services. The city’s legal costs have steadily declined over the last few years: $1.1 million in 2016-2017, $727,000 in 2018-2019, and $670,000 in 2018-2019.
The city issued a Request For Proposals for legal services in June.
The city received nine proposals and interviewed the top three candidates/firms. During a Sept. 26 closed session, the council directed staff to draw up a contract with Best Best & Krieger.