Snoqualmie brings Anderson on board
Published 11:29 am Thursday, October 2, 2008
SNOQUALMIE – The city of Snoqualmie finally has an attorney to call its own.
Longtime legal consultant Pat Anderson was officially hired as the city’s civil attorney at the Dec. 13 City Council meeting, a move that city officials say will save Snoqualmie money.
City Administrator Bob Larson said cost savings is the main advantage of having a city attorney.
“There’s no difference in our relationship with Pat, we’ll be able to utilize him the same as we have over the years,” Larson said. “He has 20-plus years of experience … we look at him as an advantage for everybody.”
Larson said a city attorney makes sense for Snoqualmie at this point with many big projects coming up including the expansion of the Salish Lodge and Spa and several road projects. Anderson handles all land-use wrangling and lawsuits.
The city will continue to use consultants for its public defender and prosecuting attorney needs. The city may look into changing its prosecuting attorney services in January in order to save more money.
To bring Anderson on as a city employee, it will cost the city $198,580. That includes all benefits and a part-time assistant for Anderson, working an average of 10 hours a week. Between 2000 and 2004, the city paid Anderson between $224,000 and $260,000 each year for his services, so his new contract is actually quite a bit of a decrease, Larson said.
“We think it’s a pretty good deal for the community to bring him on board,” Larson said. “We see the cost being a big difference.”
Salary and wages for Anderson will be $120,000, while $10,000 has been set aside for his assistant and $38,000 for benefits. But Snoqualmie City Councilman Greg Fullington said he’s not sure the assistant’s wage isn’t a little excessive.
“That was the one thing I didn’t like – $19 an hour for someone who’s going to be filing, basically,” Fullington said.
Another of Fullington’s concerns was that Anderson wrote his own contract. After lengthy questioning about the contract at the board meeting, however, Fullington seemed satisfied with the deal.
“That was one concern I had,” Fullington said. “But after going through the thing we were both pretty satisfied that it’s a good deal for both the city and Pat. That’s what we’re looking for in the long run.”
Anderson’s new contract goes into effect Jan. 1.
Staff Writer Melissa Kruse can be reached at (425) 888-2311 or by e-mail at melissa.kruse@valleyrecord.com.
