ROCKLAND, Maine — The City Council spent more than $25,000 in outside legal fees in the last five months to advise it on labor issues as employee turmoil boiled over in Rockland.
Invoices provided to the BDN by the city show Rockland paid $25,620 to Portland law firm Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson. The amount does not include payments for two meetings in June that the council had with the firm’s lawyer Linda McGill.
The council hired McGill in January to advise them on labor law in the wake of calls by then City Manager James Chaousis to terminate the contract of city attorney Kevin Beal.
The $25,620 paid to the Portland firm is for five invoices dated from Feb. 11 through June 8.
Mayor Louise MacLellan-Ruf did not immediately respond Wednesday morning to an email seeking comment on the expenditures.
Chaousis resigned effective June 30. He cited new priorities in the wake of having a benign brain tumor successfully removed in May. But the resignation also came two weeks after Chaousis renewed his call for the council to terminate the city attorney or to consider a separation agreement with the city manager.
Chaousis received no severance, according to the City Council.
Beal also announced his resignation last week, but he will remain on through Sept. 30 to assist the city during its transition to a new city manager. A severance agreement with Beal calls for him to be paid through Dec. 30.
The City Council is scheduled Wednesday evening to appoint an acting manager. The council has not disclosed who it intends to appoint, but the board also has scheduled a 5 p.m. closed-door meeting before the vote to discuss a personnel matter.
The most recent current employee to hold the acting manager post is wastewater treatment plant Director Terry Pinto, who held the position for four months after Tom Hall resigned in 2008. Pinto served until Rosemary Kulow took office in January 2009.