City, Tennant respond to misconduct allegations

Although charges of professional misconduct were filed against a representative of the legal firm appointed Monday as city attorney, the city of Libby will proceed with the firm as agreed.

Despite Dave Tennant’s involvement in the process to become city attorney, Mayor Doug Roll said Wednesday that the contract signed on Monday was with Tennant’s employer —Kaufman, Vidal, Hileman and Ellingson.

“The contract was never with Dave Tennant. He was just the face of the firm,” Roll said. “If need be, someone else from the firm will represent us. That hasn’t been determined yet.”

The State Office of Disciplinary Counsel filed charges naming seven counts of professional misconduct against Tennant on April 15. Roll said he didn’t know about the complaint filed against Tennant by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel until Tuesday, the day after the law firm’s appointment to handle the duties of city attorney.

While the process to appoint Tennant and the law firm as city attorney was unorthodox, Roll said it was necessary. Roll said the firm will be the fifth city attorney contracted with the city since he moved to Libby in 2003. Most of those had been local attorneys, Roll said, but the shallow pool of local legal firms forced him to look outside the city in the most recent search.

Roll said the city advertised the position all over the state, but didn’t receive applicants qualified for the position. Roll said he has the authority as mayor to hire an attorney to move forward with a growing pile of city legal issues that could result in dismissals if the city did not respond. The Kaufman, Vidal, Hileman and Ellingson office reached out to the city, Roll said. A temporary work order eventually grew into the one-year contract made official by a unanimous vote at Monday’s City Council meeting.

“We’ve been happy with them, and everyone is happy with Dave. There’s been no complaints,” Roll said.

Tennant’s name is also below the line where “The Firm” would sign to agree to the terms of the contract, but Tennant did not sign the contract on Monday night during the appointment.

Roll said the contract is still binding with or without Tennant’s signature.

“It doesn’t mean a thing,” Roll said. “The contract has some force, but his duties are spelled out in the city ordinance. That’s in the contract.”

City Council member Brian Zimmerman said he understood at Monday’s meeting that the contract was between the city and the law firm at large. But the complaints against Tennant were completely unexpected, Zimmerman said.

“This just kind of blindsided us,” Zimmerman said. “We don’t need any more turmoil like this. We have enough going on in this small town as it is.”

He said he hopes the initial week of the new city-attorney arrangement was nothing more than “a bump in the road.”

According to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, Tennant allegedly put a lien on a client’s property for nonpayment of fees, had the property foreclosed and then anonymously bought the property for well below market value at a sheriff’s auction.

“The foreclosed property is on the market,” Tennant said in a statement that confirmed he owned the property in question. “If the complainant wants it back, all he needs to do is contact me [and] arrange to pay what he owes.”

Tennant claims he represented the client involved in the case in a divorce, which wrapped up. He later represented the man in a contempt-of-court matter.

“Pursuant to the rules of professional conduct, you do not need to set out a new contract with former clients unless your hourly billing rate changes,” Tennant said. “We concluded that matter at a hearing. About six months after that, we foreclosed on an attorney lien because he did not make any payments to the firm.”

Tennant claims the allegations hinge on a single piece of paperwork that was not filed in the case.

“The ODC’s case rests on the fact that a notice was not filed with the court that we were no longer the attorneys to be served by mail if there was any future litigation,” Tennant stated. “My staff generally files that document when we go to put a file in storage. We never got to that point in this case because we were never paid.”

Tennant claims he is owed $34,000 in attorneys fees that were never paid. He also claims he had to pay off a $6,750 lien on the property and more than $6,800 in past taxes on the property.

“I also have about $25,000 or so of additional time into this matter dealing with the mess he left,” Tennant said.

However, the complaint notes many issues other than Tennant not filing a notice with the court.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel claims Tennant filed a lien for $24,000 against two residential lots near Columbia Falls that were awarded to the client in the divorce case. He then allegedly illegally added to the lien a $2,300 bill of fees the client owed him from an earlier case. Tennant then billed his client $3,200 for attorney fees incurred while he tried to collect his fees in the divorce case.

Tennant won the foreclosure suit in May 2013 with a $34,000 judgment, the complaint alleges.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel argues that Tennant used inside information about his client’s financial circumstances, and created a corporation to buy his client’s property for $34,000 in September 2013. The lots were put up for sale for $80,000 each. If the lots sell, the disciplinary council claims Tennant will have charged an excessive fee in addition to those already billed against the client.

Tennant has 20 days to formally file a response to the complaint. The Commission on Practice’s adjudicatory panel then will hear the case and decide if disciplinary action is required.

Roll came to Tennant’s defense on Wednesday, saying he understood Tennant’s position in the matter.

“We’ve been raked over the coals by the [Office of Disciplinary Counsel] without the ability to defend ourselves,” Roll said.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel last month dismissed a complaint that had been filed against former Libby City Attorney Richard Allan Payne filed by Councilman Allen Olsen and former Councilman Gary Neff.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.