Waynesboro City Attorney Todd Patrick is stepping down from his post effective July 31, and City Council is negotiating to hire an outside firm to handle the city’s legal business, rather than hire a full-time replacement for Patrick.
The move appears to have been in the works dating back to April, when the matter was first discussed in a closed session of City Council at an April 24 meeting.
Patrick, hired in 2008, was nonetheless re-appointed by the City Council to the city attorney position on July 3 at the Council’s annual reorganization meeting.
The city attorney is responsible for the management, charge and control of all law business in the city, is the legal advisor to the mayor, council, city manager, and the various departments of the city, and provides representation to them in litigation in state and federal court, as well as before various administrative agencies.
The budget for the city attorney office in the fiscal year 2017 budget was $149,216.
It is not clear what the city will end up paying an outside firm to cover the services that had been provided internally by the appointed city attorney. The city manager office and City Council are discussing the provision of legal services with several firms, and the financial arrangement could take any of several formats.
Story by Chris Graham
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