The Sturgeon Bay Common Council will soon be updating legal services that the city occasionally utilizes soon.  At the Tuesday evening meeting, the city council passed a recommendation from the Finance/ Purchasing and Building Committee for the staff to prepare new Request For Proposal (RFP) and interview questions for City Attorney. Currently, attorney James Kalny from Green Bay is contracted by the city. Chair Helen Bacon says the goal is to get an early start on the process and mainstream the RFP questions going forward to have them completed by March.

The common council has the interest to issue an RFP for City Attorney services, noting higher legal costs related to the recent west waterfront litigation. Alderperson Gary Nault believes finding an attorney near Sturgeon Bay is important since the city is currently paying $280 per hour for legal representation, including travel time. Mayor Ward did note that travel costs the past year have been significantly reduced using Zoom meetings.

The past RFP that was used for interviewing attorneys was 26 questions. Bacon added that the goal would be to scale it to about ten questions. The recommendation was passed unanimously by the Sturgeon Bay Common Council.