By Andy Foltz
NKyTribune Correspondent
During tonight’s Erlanger City Council meeting, a compromise deal that would allow long-time City Attorney Frank Wichmann to continue serving the city will be put before council.
If council agrees it would make Wichmann the City Council attorney, advising council on legal matters, and leave his law firm of Wichmann and Associates in charge of code and lien enforcement for the city.
Mayor Tyson Hermes would still get a City Attorney of his choosing, the law firm Freund, Freeze and Arnold representing the city. Jack Gatlin from that firm would serve as city attorney during council meetings, according to the agreement. Gatlin served as attorney for Grant County for six years.
Contracts have been drawn up to delineate duties between the two, so there will be no overlap in workload or billing.
Earlier, Hermes informed Wichmann his contract as city attorney would not be renewed in February, which led to a massive show of support from city council and the public at Erlanger’s March city council meeting. Wichmann has served in the city attorney for 49 years.
A key part of the compromise is to cap what each firm is eligible to be paid by the city, with no more than $45,000 annually to be paid to either firm. If all money is paid, that would be close to or less than the fees collected by Wichmann and Associates – meaning that the compromise worked out between the mayor and council wouldn’t come at a cost to Erlanger taxpayers.
According to information obtained by the NKyTribune, in 2013 $107,588.11 was collected by Wichmann and Associates, and the city was billed for $120,199.31. In 2014, Wichmann’s firm was paid a total of $83,147.32 for regular city attorney duties plus his collection activities. Collections in 2014 totaled $76,794.41 for a net cost to Erlanger of $6,352.91.
“This was a gain to the City, as it offset not only the collection activities, but also the cost for the bulk of his regular duties,” said city councilman Randy Blankenship. If those trends continue this year, the collection activities could fund most if not all of the legal fees for the city.
At the last council meeting, Blankenship proposed three ordinances which would establish a part-time position of city council attorney, establish ground rules for the hiring of a new city attorney, including one that had a minimum of four years of experience as a municipal attorney, and that would restrict city funds from being used to pay for any attorney aside from the city attorney, and city council attorney if passed. Those ordinances received a first reading at the March 3 meeting.
“If these contracts are not adopted by Council and approved by the Mayor, I will seek second reading of the proposed ordinances,” said Blankenship, who worked with Mayor Hermes and Gatlin on the compromise.