The chairman of the Finance and Legal Affairs committee, Councilman Chuck Fowler, clearly has no knowledge of the practice of law. You can also see that Fowler cut the questioning off on this issue in the budget. Some of the questions asked still exists after 1 year has passed since the Council denied last year's request for a major budget amendment and City Attorney Chuck Johnson fired all of the City prosecutors in retaliation. Mayor Jacques Roy said that if the City Council has a better way to handle the Legal Department, he would be willing to look at anything that it wanted to.
Well I have been a practicing attorney for over 25 years and have spent 16 years as a contract attorney for a governmental entity. I was also appointed by the governor to serve as the public administrator of Rapides Parish for a number of years. I have a few observations to make.
First, in my opinion, the legal budget is clearly excessive in the an increase of $6,000 for dues and subscriptions for a total of $24,500. In my opinion, this is totally absurd for three members of the City's legal department.
Most normal private practice attorneys have well over 100 files that they are working on at a time. Last year, Chuck Johnson told us last year that each of the 3 in-house City attorneys only handle 30 files. Of course this went up somewhat by Chuck's having to assume the prosecutorial role after he fired the City contract prosecutors, who were all three assistant parish district attorneys, and had to take over some of their duties himself.
But it is in the area of civil law, everything except criminal, that Chuck Johnson misleads the Council. While the City needs lawyers that are experienced in specialized areas of the law, such as utilities, pollution and bankruptcy, I see no need that any other competent lawyer cannot handle all of the remainder of cases encountered by the City.
The legal contract law firms that the City farms most of its legal work out to are some of the highest priced firms in town. Members of these firms have been traditionally among the biggest contributors to the campaigns of Alexandria's mayors.
Take for example, on public records, the law says that the public records custodian for the City is supposed to handle public records requests. Mayor Roy, however, has designated the city attorney to handle them. The City Attorney, Chuck Johnson, then farms them out to Brad Calvit of the Provosty law firms. ("THE LEGAL SCHOLARS IN THE CITY OF ALEXANDRIA CAN'T DECIDE WHO IS ITS PUBLIC RECORDS CUSTODIAN", "DID
ALEXANDRIA CHANGE ITS WAY OF DEALING WITH PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS OR DID CHUCK
LIE?" and "DESIGNATION
OF A RECORDS CUSTODIAN UNDER LOUISIANA LAW").
Something must also be done to stop Alexandria Mayor Roy and his vindictive lawsuits, many of which he has lost (see the levee lawsuit, Tiffany Sanders litigation, and the Tommy Davenport legal fees). We also have the silly litigation against Councilman Roosevelt Johnson which is ongoing.
A good lawyer can probably be hired for around $40,000 to $60,000 (especially when you factor in the benefits) for an in-house legal position with the City. A paralegal can be hired by the City for about half that amount. I think that it is high time to beef up the City's legal department, and make sure that they work, rather than sending cases to high priced outside law firms.
See Also:
MAJOR
BUDGET AMENDMENT: LEGAL and the posts linked thereunder
More $$$$ wasted for the so call LEGAL Department for the COA! First of all Chuck johnson needs to FIRED, SENT TO THE WOOD SHED, HE needs to go and very soon!! For instance see
ReplyDeletewho will be the lead ATTY for the COA lawsuit on
Feb 6,2012 against the CITY COUNCIL(Johnson) now
CHUCKY will say that he had to hire someone who
is an "EXPERT" in handling METROPLITAN LAWSUITS
this so called City Atty is a Local,State, and
National JOKE! But this speaks volume for ROY!!!
Just more political paybacks at COA Taxpayer expense! WAKE UP COA, RECALL RECALL RECALL
One assistant city attorney had a full time job somewhere else. She doesn't even visit city hall. This is common knowledge. The other one was only hired because she was sleeping with Mr. Chuck Johnson.
ReplyDeleteI was told that she was sleeping with MORCOTT and not CHUCKY! No wonder you can't go to the 2nd floor
ReplyDeleteof "THE HALL", you may walk in on a SEX ORGY!! LOL
The Second Floor Folks tell me that Albin Provosty is involved in everything that transpires in the Mayor's office. Provosty is there for every staff and executive meeting and all high level confabs. You will remember Albin's extraordinary skill at trough access from the doomed Randolph Administration. I will I could get the low down on this.
ReplyDeleteStill sleeping with Marcotte and Crutchfield, been going on for years. And of course we all know Kay is sleeping with Jacques. Wish my job had benefits like that. Crutch field is yummy.
ReplyDeleteYou work too cheap. Assistant DA's in Rapides, without much experience, get $90K+ for what is classified as part time work. They can have outside practice and do other jobs like City Court, etc.
ReplyDeleteTry to catch one of the DAs in their office. Good luck.
Don't know nothing about Crutchfield. But, know she is still doing Mr Marcotte. Guess those Menard boys wish they were back on the plantation. Glad they found them a house nigga.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the REAL FED's need to come to town, this all
ReplyDeletestink to the hills! Sluts, Hoas, Gays runnig the 2nd
floor of THE HALL, it must nice to get paid and laid
at work, huh KAY? DAMN we have our own version of
"SEX IN THE CITY" here in Alexandria! Whose doing SILVER?? LOL