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Fees continue to climb for city, township litigation

ALPENA — The water and sewer litigation between City of Alpena and Alpena Township is well into its fourth year and consultant and attorney bills continue to pile up.

During Monday’s Alpena Municipal Council meeting, the council voted 4-0 to pay City Attorney Bill Pfeifer $70,000 for his normal city business and the hours he has put into the water and sewer case. Pfeifer actually put in work valued at a touch over $100,000, but lowered the amount he asked to be paid by the city.

The billing period was from July 1, 2016 until June 30 of this year, but he provided an update on the amount of hours he worked over the last several years.

Pfeifer said that, from Jan.1 though Dec. 1, 2017, he worked 368 hours on regular city business. For the first six months of this year, he said he logged 188 hours working for the city.

In addition to that, Pfeifer said he devoted 404 hours to the water and sewer dispute between Jan. 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018.

“During that 18-month time period, I spent almost as much time on the water and sewer litigation as I had my regular city duty,” Pfeifer said. “Council is aware the litigation is complex and required a lot of time traveling to get depositions done and there was obviously a lot of time preparing for court.”

Pfeifer said he is asking council to pay the lower billing amount because he thought it was fair and believes that, if the city had bid for legal services, it could have been cheaper.

“It is a discounted rate, but normally when a municipality gets outside counsel, it comes at a lower rate,” he said.

As of July the city has spent $595,426 on attorney fees for the litigation. That total does not include the $70,000 approved Monday. Expert fees have totaled $273,517, attorney James Young has been paid $267,072, and Pfeifer $46,802. Young is an attorney the city hired to work with Pfeifer on the litigation.

There was also $8,034 in other legal expenses.

The $70,000 is expected to be paid after the next council meeting on Aug. 6 and half of the money will come out of the water fund and the other half the sewer fund.

Mayor Matt Waligora said he believes Pfeifer has provided a fair price for the work he has done for the city.

“I can’t expect that he would do all of that extra work on just his agreed-upon salary,” Waligora said.

The township has spent about $803,000 on attorney and expert fees.

The township and city are scheduled to appear in 26th Circuit Court at 10:30 a.m. July 27 at for a status conference.

In other business, the council voted to approve a new, three-year contract with Thunder Bay Shores Marine to manage the harbor and marina. Staff looked into the potential cost of having city employees run them, but according to city Harbor Master Don Gilmet, it would have been much more costly than continuing with Thunder Bay Shores Marine.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached via email at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5689. Follow Steve on Twitter ss_alpenanews.

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