In a special called meeting on Thursday, the East Ridge City Council hired Mark Litchford as Interim City Attorney.

Litchford, a member of the Grant Konvalinka & Harrison law firm, will replace Hal North, who resigned as City Attorney effective Jan. 1.

The transition from one city attorney to another was anything but smooth. Several citizens spoke out against hiring anyone from the Grant Konvalinka & Harrison firm, as former City Attorney John Anderson is a partner in the law firm.

Former City Councilman Jim Bethune was removed from the meeting on Mayor Brent Lambert’s request after several heated exchanges between the two.

“I know this is a done deal,” Bethune said during the portion of every city meeting in which citizens are reserved five minutes to speak. “You’ve got your three votes.”

Bethune, who led the charge in 2012 to fire Anderson, said that the last year Anderson was the city’s lawyer he was paid $211,000. He asserted that the average salary for Anderson in his years of service with the city was $161,000. 

Lambert disputed the figures and pointed to documents that Finance Director Dianne Qualls provided. Bethune, who unsuccessfully opposed Lambert for mayor in 2012, insisted the city’s figures on the payments were inaccurate and that staff was incompetent.

Lambert said that during Bethune’s four years on the council he consistently attempted to embarrass city employees. This statement prompted Bethune to call Lambert a liar.

The mayor termed Bethune’s behavior “disgusting,” and had a police officer escort the former Councilman from the room.

Prior to Bethune speaking, Frances Pope, who ran for mayor in 2012, urged the mayor and council to install Alex McVeagh – a lawyer who works for North’s firm of Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel and sometimes fills in for North at city council meetings – as interim.

Pope asked the two new members of council, Esther Helton and Brian Williams, if they had met or spoken with Litchford, whose appointment was first brought forward by Mayor Lambert. Both of them said they had. They also said they talked with Litchford prior to North turning in his resignation letter on Dec. 22. Councilman Jacky Cagle, however, said he had not communicated with Litchford.

Lambert said he had sent the entire council an e-mail suggesting that Litchford be appointed to replace North. He told Pope that he didn’t “want to be blindsided” like what happened four years ago when Anderson was fired and North was appointed on short notice.

Lambert said that Pope had insinuated that “Sunshine Laws” had been violated. Pope said she never said that, however, the spirit of the law which deals with open meetings was violated.

“I hoped our city had gone beyond that,” Pope said.

Lambert said that it was no secret that “Hal North and I and Larry Sewell are not on the best of terms.” He said he wanted someone from the Grant Konvalinka & Harrison firm to be our next city attorney because it was former City Attorney Anderson and the firm who were responsible for East Ridge’s participation in the Border Region Act.

“I want to reconnect in some measure with the firm,” he said.

Councilman Cagle made a motion that the city hire McVeagh as the next city attorney. That motion died for a lack of a second.

Lambert proposed that Litchford be the new city attorney. Then he said that his intention was to make Litchford the interim city attorney for an indefinite period of time. His compensation would be the same as the current city attorney – $8,000 per month with an additional fee of $175 per hour if the attorney is engaged in litigation on the city’s behalf. The interim’s responsibility would not include in-depth work on Border Region issues that may involve development agreements. That would be handled by the Mark Mamantov, the Industrial Development Board’s legal counsel.

Both Helton and Williams expressed their desire was to hire an interim attorney. 

Lambert made a formal motion to hire Litchford as interim city attorney, Williams seconded the motion and the measure was adopted 3-1 (Councilman Larry Sewell was out of town) with Cagle the lone dissenter.

McVeagh, who was filling in for North at the meeting, “strongly suggested” that the city seek a legal opinion from the state’s Board of Professional Responsibility pertaining to potential conflicts of interest which may arise during the next city attorney’s tenure.

On the only other item on the agenda for the special called meeting, the council voted unanimously to hire Nicole Osborne, an attorney from the Chambliss firm, as a Government Affairs Counsel. Osborne would lobby the state legislature on the city’s behalf on public utility and environmental issues. The city will pay Osborne $15,000 for her services.