LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – The City of Lubbock spent $11,225 on outside legal counsel to determine whether a candidate is eligible to run for city council, according to open records requests.
In April, the Seventh Court of Appeals ruled in Gary Boren’s favor, determining he must be listed for a special election for Lubbock’s city council District 4 seat later this month.
Starting in April, Mikel Ward began a set of open records requests with the city to determine how much it cost to handle the case.
She asked for the total dollar amount being paid to the outside law firm representing the city, how many attorneys are employed internally by the city and how much they make.
“I was wanting just to get an idea of how many city attorneys we had, basically, didn’t we have enough expertise to read the charter?” Ward said.
She was given the internal information, including the salaries within the city attorney’s office. That includes the city attorney, deputy city attorney and first assistant city attorney, all making more than $200,000.
In total, the records show 11 different attorneys completed legal work for the city over the last year, earning a total of more than $1.4 million.
“Meaning that they should have been able to read the charter and not make anything out of this to start with,” Ward said.
At that time, the city told her no payments had been made to the law firm.
In May, she sent another request, asking for the contract and the total amount that would be paid. Ward then spoke about her concerns on a radio show, and the city sent the contract within the 10 days the law requires.
“But see, if I hadn’t said something on the radio, I think it would have all been appealed to the Attorney General to not even let me see the contract,” Ward said.
The contract shows the hourly rates for the law firm.
This month, she asked for all billing records concerning this work. The city sent back the invoice from May 8, showing the current services rendered totaled nearly 29 hours and cost $11,225.
Ward said it shouldn’t have cost that much to see the election code states different residence requirements may be prescribed by a home-rule city.
“It brings up a question, basically, of why was it so important to avoid him even running, let alone serve,” Ward said.
Mayor Mark McBrayer said in April he regrets taxpayer funds were spent litigating this issue. KCBD reached out to city staff and a representative said it has no comment on this case at this time.
There are four other candidates running for district four: Stephanie Ferran, Tim Green, Bill Curnow and Boyd Goodloe. Election day is June 27th.
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