The City of Guyton is paying a pretty penny for legal services, having run up more than $30,000 in fees in the last four months alone.
The information came to light through an Open Records Request pertaining to an earlier dispute. In that incident, Mayor Russ Deen and Police Chief James Breletic sent paperwork to the city attorney in an effort to initiate legal action against TheGeorgiaVirtue, – which is merely a website, not an entity of any kind – and its publisher beginning with a demand letter. In that letter, city attorney Ben Perkins suggested the Guyton Police Department was defamed by a video posted on Facebook regarding statistics on calls for service. After receipt of the letter, a request was made to be placed on the council agenda, a request Deen denied without cause and in conflict with the city’s process for meetings.
Subsequently, an Open Records Request was filed for the following:
- documents reflecting a denial of any person to be placed on a council agenda;
- The city reported no such documents exist.
- documents which reflect a request by anyone to be placed on the agenda between January 1, 2020 and April 8, 2022;
- The city reported no such documents exist.
- text messages, emails, social media messages, or other correspondence between Russ Deen and any city employee or city appointee or city contractor or city elected official between 4:00 p.m. on April 7, 2022 and 10:00 a.m. on April 8, 2022;
- The following documents were provided:
- One screenshot of a text message between the Mayor and the city manager, Meketa Brown.
- One email from Russ Deen to Ben Perkins
- One email from Russ Deen to multiple people at Oliver Maner
- The following documents were provided:
- The call log for Russ Deen, between the same time period in item #3 for his cell phone (912-665-4981);
- This is not an authentic document. The city manufactured it to reflect part of the call log.
- any invoices for December 1 through April 7, 2022 for Oliver Maner or other lawyer.
Invoices for December 2021
Invoices for January 2022
Invoices for February 2022
Invoices for March 2022
NOTE: The city omitted page 1 of every invoice.
What the City of Guyton is Paying for Legal Services
Highlights
- The City legal bills for the last four months totaled $30,888.50
- The City contracts with Oliver Maner LLP and utilizes the resources of five staff at the firm
- The hourly rates range from $125/hour to $275/hour
- Forwarding an email to another person costs the city upwards of $27.50
- The City of Guyton budgeted $62,000 in FY 2022 for ‘Legal Services’ for General Government Administration.
- The FY 2022 General Fund Expenses total $1,728,171.
- The City also budgeted another $66,800 in Legal Services for the city’s Water & Sewer Fund.
- The grand total budgeted in FY 2022 for city legal services is $128,800.
- The City is spending an average of $259.57 per day on legal services
- Taxpayers are paying lawyers for their drive time to and from city council meetings plus mileage, usually more than $1,000 for a council meeting or workshop.
Disdain for Open Records Requests?
According to the invoices for legal services, the mayor asked one city attorney to review the law on whether or not the city could charge legal fees to the citizens and media who file open records requests.
(Note: Such an act is not permissible under the Open Records Act, particularly if the attorney is not an employee of the city, as is the case in Guyton)
The mayor then requested invoices for the last two years in order to conduct an analysis on city resources used for fulfilling public records. Despite this occurring two weeks prior to the TGV request for four months of invoices, the City of Guyton still charged to provide the documents – despite Oliver maner billing the city for the same documents.
A reasonable person with the same documentation would question whether or not the mayor may be planning to demonstrate publicly that providing records is burdensome for the city.
For that reason, TGV compared city attorney expenses incurred for open records records with the following:
https://cdn.thegeorgiavirtue.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Guyton-Invoices-for-Oliver-Maner_Mayor-Costs-v-ORR-costs-1.pdf
The position of Deen would vary considerable from the one he held while running for Mayor two years ago.
Most Expensive Legal Consulting When Considering Size of City
Guyton’s legal services for the town of 2,289 that spans 3.22 square miles outpaces many larger cities in the region and state.
https://cdn.thegeorgiavirtue.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Guyton-Legal-Fees-vs.-Everywhere-Else-1.pdf
You can review all of the invoices from Oliver Maner LLP below:
https://cdn.thegeorgiavirtue.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Guyton-Oliver-Maner-December-2021.pdf
https://cdn.thegeorgiavirtue.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Guyton-Oliver-Maner-January-2022.pdf
https://cdn.thegeorgiavirtue.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Guyton-Oliver-Maner-february-2022.pdf
https://cdn.thegeorgiavirtue.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Guyton-Oliver-Maner-March-2022.pdf
