The Haines Borough spent about $70,000 on legal services in the past year, including $11,500 on the 2013 election investigation and $7,000 on the appeal of a conditional use permit recently issued by the borough for construction of a heliport near 26 Mile Haines Highway.
Borough attorney Brooks Chandler presented a breakdown of the fiscal year 2014 costs to the assembly last week. About $40,000 of the $70,000 of the services were for “general counsel,” what Chandler described as “projects that come up day-to-day for borough activities.”
General counsel services included providing legal advice on: multiple personnel matters, planning and zoning issues like permits and mandatory utility connections, a citizen complaint against the police department and the effects of switching election procedures from seats to an “at-large” system.
Chandler’s law firm also worked on the issuance of a conditional use permit to Big Salmon Ventures for construction of a heliport near 26 Mile. The firm is representing the borough in the Superior Court appeal of the assembly decision made by resident Jessica Plachta.
Though expenses on the appeal have so far totaled just under $7,000, Chandler said he expects expenses over the next year to exceed $10,000.
Assembly member Jerry Lapp asked Chandler if the borough ever has an opportunity to recoup some of the costs associated with legal matters. Though the borough sometimes can choose to pursue reimbursement in legal cases, most of the $70,000 is unable to be recouped, Chandler said.
“A lot of what we do, no, there’s no way to get that money back,” he said.
Chandler also reminded Lapp that the assembly had the option of recouping all or part of the $11,500 spent on the election investigation from Ardy Miller, the school board candidate who contested the election.
The assembly decided to have the borough bear the cost.
If the borough wins the conditional use permit appeal case, it will have the opportunity to pursue recoupment of some of the costs, Chandler said.
Other services provided by the firm included work on: port issues ($1,100), property tax issues ($5,100), sales tax collection issues ($1,300), the Alaska Power Company rate case ($5,300), public safety issues ($1,700) and heli-skiing issues ($1,600).