Friday, March 1, 2013

Sun Valley approves more legal fees

Special attorney payments climb from $35K to $45K


By BRENNAN REGO
Express Staff Writer

Despite expressing a desire to dam the torrent of cash flowing from the city of Sun Valley over the past several months, the City Council has reluctantly agreed to spend another $10,000 on legal fees.

Attorney Kirtlan Naylor of Boise-based law firm Naylor & Hales is the city’s counsel in two lawsuits—one pending and one recently closed—in 5th District Court. The council voted 3-0 during a special meeting Monday to allow Naylor to increase a $35,000 contract to $45,000.

Councilman Nils Ribi abstained from the vote because he is involved in one of the suits. According to figures supplied by Ribi at a meeting on Feb. 7, Naylor had then already exceeded the contract by $6,100.

The first of the two suits involves a public records request filed in August by Jim Donoval, husband and former attorney of former City Administrator Sharon Hammer. In a ruling filed Feb. 14, Judge Jonathan Brody closed that case in the city’s favor, saying the city had done all that could reasonably be expected of it in responding to several public records requests submitted by Donoval. According to Ribi, Naylor had initially requested $15,000 to defend the city in that suit, but by Feb. 7 had racked up fees of $19,200 and in the amended contract is requesting $20,000.

The second suit is a pending defamation suit filed in December 2011 by Ribi and his wife, Patricia Ribi, against Donoval. The city became involved when Donoval issued subpoenas against it to produce documents. In June, Brody ruled in Donoval’s favor on allegations by Nils Ribi that Donoval had defamed him in written communications related to another, now closed, lawsuit between Hammer and the city. However, Brody has yet to rule on emotional distress complaints filed by Patricia Ribi against Donoval.

According to Nils Ribi, Naylor had requested $15,000 for that suit and has only spent $8,000. However, Ribi said, Naylor had also requested $12,000 to defend the city against Donoval’s subpoenas, but by Feb. 7 said his costs had reached $13,900 for the subpoena defense. In the amended contract, Naylor requests $17,000 for the subpoena defense.

In an interview Feb. 7, Briscoe said the increased fees are a result of Naylor’s having to file responses to numerous filings by Donoval in the first and third suits. He said Naylor, who charges the city $135 per hour, is giving the city about a 50 percent discount.

City Attorney Adam King, who provides legal advice at council meetings but does not litigate for the city, said at the Feb. 7 meeting that switching attorneys at this point would be prohibitively expensive because the new attorney would charge the city to get up to speed on the suits.




About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged:

  • Spam
  • Ones violating this site's commenting policy
  • Clearly unrelated
  • Personal attacks on others
Comments should not be flagged for:
  • Disagreeing with the content
  • Being in a dispute with the commenter

Popular Comment Threads



 Local Weather 
Search archives:


Copyright © 2024 Express Publishing Inc.   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited. 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.