Lawyer considered for dispute

The Troy City Council Wednesday

unanimously approved looking into hiring an attorney to represent

the city in an employee dispute and union negotiations.

Troy has been without a city attorney

since January and the council and the mayor have been unable to

agree on hiring one.

In the meantime, the council voted to

have representation on these two issues. The council moved to hire

attorney Daniel Johns in the matters, but later said the motion was

meant as a way to investigate his fees and the potential of

retaining him.

“We need a ruling on whether we can see

time slips or not,” councilmember Fran McCully said.

Members of the council have argued that

they can legally review timecards and employees pay, overtime, sick

leave and vacation. They say the review is to assess the city’s

financial situation.

However, the employees union has

disagreed. The union sent a letter to the council threatening to

file a formal grievance and possible lawsuit if the mayor continues

to allow the council members to access employee files.

Mayor Don Banning took issue with the

city hiring an attorney for contract negotiations with city

employees.

“The mayor is the person who negotiates

the contract,” he said. “I don’t need to have an attorney there. If

I need one I’ll hire someone of my choosing. I don’t want a person

who’s prices, I understand, are exorbitant.”

The council said they would like to

know what the negotiations are going to be.

“This is an administrative issue, not a

legislative issue,” Banning said. “When negotiations are done the

contract will be presented to the council.”

“I don’t want the contract thrown down

in front of me,” councilmember John Clogston responded.

Clogston said that city wages have

increased “exponentially” from 2005 to 2011.

“This is way out of line,” he said. “It

is almost double in five years time. We need to know what’s

happening.”

“When I hear we’ll just raise rates,”

he added. “We, the people of Troy, are not made of gold.”

Councilmember Phil Fisher asked what

the harm was in hiring an attorney for negotiations.

“You want the city to spend $10,000 on

a lawyer, but you don’t want to raise wages,” Banning

countered.