Our practice is that the mayor can request a legal opinion or it can be done by a consensus of the council. No individual council member can call the city attorney on the cities dime!!! A few years ago one council member seemed to think he could get some free legal advise regarding his dealing with the city. Larry Clucas, Umatilla

From: Chad Olsen [mailto:chad@ci.st-helens.or.us]
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 1:42 PM
To: Oregon City/County Management Association
Subject: [occma] City Attorney Contacts

The City Council is reviewing a “rules and procedures” policy and a question came up concerning contacts initiated by Council to the contracted City Attorney. The draft policy is:

Members of the Council requesting a legal opinion of the City Attorney may do so directly during a meeting or if the Mayor is aware of the inquiry.

I’m looking for city practices on this issue.

Chad