- April 18, 2024
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Former Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre is interested in becoming the city of Palm Coast's in-house attorney and says the move would provide the city a savings of at least $100,000 for the 2022-23 fiscal year.
Manfre emailed a letter to Mayor David Alfin on Aug. 22, copying the four other members of the City Council. In the letter, Manfre says it has been five months since Alfin asked if he would consider being the city's in-house counsel. Manfre said he agreed to move forward with the proposal on April 1 and, upon, the mayor's request, provided a draft budget for an attorney and staff on June 2.
Currently, the city contracts out with the law firm of Garganese, Weiss, D'Agresta & Salzman P.A. of Orlando. The firm's Neysa Borkert is Palm Coast's primary attorney.
In the letter, Manfre said he was astounded to discover the budget for outside counsel had grown to $575,000. He said, based on his research, his preliminary budget of a full-time staff of three "indicated a possible savings of $100,000."
He added that "the savings is potentially greater as outside counsel has requested a $50,000 increase from last year's budget."
Alfin said he has had conversations with Manfre about his interest in becoming an in-house attorney, but said it was Manfre who approached him.
Manfre said the idea was not his.
"I had applied for the city manager position, but I had no ambitions for being city attorney," he said. "I would serve because I was asked. Public service is an honorable thing to do for your community."
Manfre wrote in the letter that he met with City Manager Denise Bevan on July 25 to discuss the potential move.
"As the city is in its final budget decisions, I believe this is the right time to consider your proposal," Manfre wrote to the mayor. "It not only would save money, but provide for three full time employees inside City Hall, who would be immediately available for any meetings or issues that suddenly arise."
Alfin would not specifically discuss the letter, saying the issue should be discussed in public with all the council members should the council decide to consider the question. He said there are advantages and disadvantages to hiring an in-house attorney.
"Certainly the favored approach throughout the 460 plus cities in the state of Florida is external counsel," Alfin said. "You could make an argument that having in-house might offer what I would call instant gratification in contact. I mean, knowing that somebody is in an office in a place that you could walk by may be comforting to some. The other side of is, Can an in-house attorney be as objective if they are a part of the daily culture? Quite honestly, there's no rule of thumb."
He said two-thirds of the average Florida city's legal budget is applied to outside expert opinion. For example, Palm Coast's outside firm provides the city with several attorneys with legal specialties.
"No attorney is capable of handling the broad spectrum of issues that come forward," Alfin said. "Every city council relies on a large number of specialists, whether it be land development, personnel, Tallahassee government, federal government."
The cities of Bunnell and Flagler Beach, like Palm Coast, have contracts with outside firms.
Bunnell has used Vose Law Firm since 2013, said Kristen Bates, Bunnell's clerk/administrative services director.
"We pay $7,500 per month for all legal matters with no limits on calls or contact," Bates said. "They represent the city and attend all commission and (planning, zoning and appeals board) meetings. They have served us very well. They have not increased rates on us in several years."
Flagler Beach Deputy City Clerk Jeanelle Jarrah said the city budgeted $148,000 for the current fiscal year for an outside firm and the same amount is in the 2022-23 budget, which has not been approved yet.
"No attorney is capable of handling the broad spectrum of issues that come forward. Every city council relies on a large number of specialists."
— DAVID ALFIN
Alfin said in terms of the cost of legal counsel, you can't compare those cities to Palm Coast, citing differences in population, the number of city employees and the quantity of legal needs involving such issues as land development.
"Certainly land development would be a lion's share of it, because if you look at the permit count for the city of Palm Coast versus Flagler County or any of the other four cities, there's no comparison," he said.
Manfre wrote in his letter, "It is unusual for a city of this size to still use outside counsel given the growth of the city and the expanding local issues. The county has had in-house counsel for more than a hundred years, and the city originally had in-house counsel."
Alfin said to make a change, the city would need to prove a benefit.
"You have to benefit significantly," he said. "Because there's always cost to change, no matter what you change. So the benefit has to outweigh that."
Managing Editor Jonathan Simmons contributed to this story.
