Two towns in Lincoln County have turned to law firms for their legal services instead of employing a single city attorney on contract.
In early December, Libby and Troy’s city councils voted to hire law firms out of Helena and Whitefish after both towns’ attorneys left their positions. Libby contracted with Doney Crowley P.C. in Helena where Allen Payne will cover civil issues and Marc Buyske will cover criminal prosecution. Troy is contracting with Hedman, Hileman & LaCosta in Whitefish where Clifton Hayden will work on civil cases and Caleb Simpson will serve as the city prosecutor.
The vacancies occurred earlier this year when Troy city attorney Heather McDougall and Libby’s James Reintsma announced they were both stepping down from their city council-appointed positions.
Mayor Doug Roll said Payne had approached him earlier this year about his Helena firm taking over for Reintsma. Payne is a Libby native and has been involved with numerous legal issues in the community before, including helping get a settlement from International Paper a few years ago and representing the Lincoln County Port Authority in its lawsuit against Stinger Welding. Payne’s firm was hired by the city council in a three-to-two vote earlier this month.
“We’ve known Allen for years and he has done a lot for this community,” Roll said.
Payne’s firm, Doney Crowley P.C., will be paid about $5,600 a month or about $67,000 annually. That is significantly more than what the last attorney was paid, but Roll said the city will get more services and there is too much work in Libby for one attorney to handle.
“It was a heck of a lot of work and you need more than one attorney,” Roll said. “Even if we have to pay a little more, I’m tired of having the city underrepresented.”
Troy will be paying considerably less for its new attorney, although the workloads between the two jobs are considerably different. Troy Mayor Darren Coldwell said the attorneys at Hedman, Hileman & LaCosta in Whitefish would be paid an hourly rate of $100. He said the new agreement should save the city $4,000 to $5,000 annually; the previous attorney was paid about $20,000 a year. When the contracted city attorney needs to appear at a city council meeting, they will be able to appear through videophone.
In the past it was common for communities to have a single city attorney, but David Nielsen, interim director of the Montana League of Cities and Towns, said more towns are now working with larger legal firms. He said the larger firms often have more resources and more attorneys that specialize in different aspects of the law.
“It’s a better deal for the cities and towns,” Nielsen said.