There is much defensive posturing - and inaccurate reporting - around how much town money is available to cover legal costs already incurred as a result of the ill-conceived firing of the previous town manager, not to mention costs still to come.
Interim Town Manager Thorne has repeatedly said he does not yet have a total of Attorney Hole's fees to date on the Jackson case. But the Finance Clerk would have record of checks made and bills would be itemized. This is public record. There will be follow up on this site.
Thorne said [Advertiser Democrat 9-3-09 p.7A] town insurance had not yet denied coverage of the additional points of the suit. This would not be an insignificant amount. Ask Mr. Thorne what he's heard lately.
About all this money available in the budget for legal fees: The Town of Paris budget adopted 6-13-09, lists $21,300 in the budget category "Professional Services." This includes $11,600 for auditing services; $1,700 for tax maps, and $8,000 for legal expenses.
There is a contingency fund of $15,000, though not intended exclusively for legal fees. However, to play devil's advocate, even if a contingency fund was tapped for these costs (that should never have come up in the first place), just how far would the $8,000 and even the whole contingency fund go when we have Town Attorney Hole devoting 2 1/2 hours round trip travel, and at least one hour conferring - with 2 selectmen here, a board meeting or two there? and those phone calls? and the writing of legal opinions? and the faxes? and the emails? and....
