Greenwood hopes to hire a third staff attorney after struggling for a year to find a qualified corporation counsel, Mayor Mark Myers said.
The city began its search for a managing lawyer to be in charge of all of the city’s and its board’s legal affairs after Krista Taggart left for another job last year.
Myers said he and his staff have conducted several rounds of interviews, but the candidates they’ve wanted to hire were either not quite qualified or did not live in Johnson County, which is a requirement, according to state law.
The job also requires at least three years of experience as corporation counsel, but more than five is preferred, according to the job description. Candidates must also have a juris doctorate degree and be admitted to the Indiana State Bar.
The kicker though, Myers said, is they have to live in Johnson County. Most lawyers they have interviewed do not, and so far, none have been willing to relocate, he told city council members Monday night.
“As we thought about it and consulted with our legal staff and also with our current corporation counsel on tap, what we’d like to do is hire a second assistant city attorney, someone who could come in and help take the load off with the many things that are going on in the legal department right now,” Myers said.
Myers walked on an ordinance during the regular city council meeting to pursue hiring another assistant city attorney instead.
For the past year, the city has leaned heavily on City Attorney Shawna Koons and outside legal review. The city has a contract with Taft Stettinius and Hollister LLP to provide the corporation counsel service.
The city’s new plan is to keep Taft on retainer, pay them significantly less money annually, and hire another assistant attorney for about $28,000 less than what a corporation counsel would make, controller Greg Wright said.
If the city council approves the new position at its next meeting, the annual salary for the staff attorney will be $70,000. Once the new lawyer starts, Taft’s role will be reduced and its fee cut to $24,000 per year, down from the $97,000 annual fee the city is currently paying the contractor.
"The combined cost of the new position and the Taft contract is under the current budget for corporation counsel. We expect total legal costs to be less in 2019 as a result of the change," Wright said.
The goal is to train an assistant city attorney for the corporation counsel role.
