Summary
To: Mayor Mike Wilkinson & Commissioners
From: JP Murphy, Town Manager
Date: 6/11/2021
______________________________________________________________________
Subject:
Title
Town Attorney Solicitation
Summary:
At the last commission meeting, the Commission moved to open solicitation for Town Attorney services. In order to administer the solicitation, I have several questions that require commission direction.
1. Would you like town staff to handle the solicitation, or would you prefer to hire a professional recruiter to represent you?
The benefits of professional recruitment include having an independent party provide review and background screening, extensive advertisement, as well as provide professional guidance. Of course, there is a cost attached to this consulting work. Initial estimates are in the $25,000 to $32,000 dollar range.
If staff were to administer the bid, it would likely be administered by the Town Clerk and myself, given the nature of the appointment. I would suggest that the Commission be responsible for the shortlisting of candidates, and it would need to do so in a public hearing as well as host public meetings for interviews, leading to ultimate selection. I have cobbled together a rough sample of solicitation language provided in the attachments. I would request edits from the Commission for their approval prior to offering the solicitation. Additionally, I would need to create a scoring tool for the Commission to utilize. The collection of the responses is relatively easy. However, I’m not certain we have the time or expertise on staff to review background information, bar complaints, pending legal matters, etc., to make adequate recommendations to the Commission beyond the simple provision of the information. The Commission may want to consider an independent professional or volunteer to assist in that effort or take up the matter themselves. Again, we can do it; I just want to be transparent as to the limitations of staff.
2. Are there any specific qualifications or limitations you’d like to include as preferences?
If there are any specific qualifications or specializations you’d like to see, it is helpful to include that in your solicitation documents-for instance, a firm or attorney with x number of years of experience with land use law. The same might apply to limitations; perhaps you don’t want to engage a firm that is more than 60 miles away from town. Any of these items, if known, are useful to craft a solicitation that might be more responsive to your needs.
3. What timeframe would you like to see this completed by?
How long do you envision this process to take? Usual solicitations take 30 days for the advertising period. The completion of the entire process can take 90-120 days or longer depending on interviews, reference reviews, etc.
4. With no objection from the Commission, I would procure a disinterested firm or attorney to act as the arbiter of any bid protest since both staff, and the attorney might be involved in the process.
Bid protests are rare, but I would want to prearrange an independent party ahead of time.
Finally, there may be other concerns or matters related to the solicitation that the Commission may wish to discuss or settle during the meeting as it decides how to proceed. Please see the attached draft solicitation language as an outline of what a rough sample procurement might look like.