Settling a legal disputeIdaho Falls, Bonneville County review policy on legal services
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By PHIL DAVIDSON
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pdavidson@postregister.com
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In Idaho Falls and Bonneville County, certain contracts are rarely bid out.
The city hired Dale Storer in 1980 to advise city leaders as their attorney and hasn't looked back. It contracted with attorney Kimball Mason to prosecute misdemeanor cases for 13 years. And for at least 16 years, the county has never looked further than Court and Clinical Services, a private business, to provide it with juvenile probation services.
But Mason's recent resignation and the death of Dick Moulton, co-owner and operator of Court and Clinical, have forced the city and county to review those arrangements.
Both are looking at other ways to fill those slots, but neither of those hefty contracts will be put out to bid. (Mason's last contract was for $112,000, and Court and Clinical's was for $860,000.)
Mayor Jared Fuhriman is leaning toward contracting with the Bonneville County Prosecutor's Office, which has been handling the city's cases since mid-December, when Mason was put on leave pending an investigation into the way he handled evidence. He has since resigned.
The Bonneville County Commission has decided to bring juvenile probation services in house rather than contract with another individual or business. But rather than advertise those positions, they have opted to hire Moulton's staff from Court and Clinical.
After talking with Jeannette Moulton -- who owned the business with her husband -- judges and others, Commissioner Roger Christensen said the county decided to create its own department to oversee the 1,200 juvenile referrals Court and Clinical averages each year.
He said the county will likely lose a few employees because of the expense of providing benefits like health care, but that will be done through attrition.
"This way it will be a little more long term, because then we develop a system that's not dependent so much on one person," Christensen said. "I don't think we'll see much of a falloff in service."
The city, in the meantime, is taking a different approach in replacing Mason.
Fuhriman prefers to return to the arrangement Idaho Falls had before it hired Mason in 1993 to prosecute its misdemeanor cases. (Under Idaho code, county prosecutors handle all felony cases.)
That involves the city paying the county prosecutor a certain amount to handle its cases.
Storer, the city attorney, said Idaho Falls dissolved that relationship in the early 1990s after the county demanded more money.
Having no other option, the city began contracting with Mason, who had been Bonneville County's prosecutor.
Fuhriman believes contracting with the prosecutor can work and that it will provide continuity. Idaho Falls has paid Prosecutor Dane Watkins Jr.'s office $2,000 a week since mid-December to handle Mason's cases.
Other attorneys have expressed interest in Mason's position, but Fuhriman said he's sticking with Watkins' office.
"There's been an interruption of services when we had to make the change," he said. "We thought, 'Let's get our feet underneath us, let's continue on the best we can.' "
No matter what city officials decide, some have grumbled about the way they handled Mason's contract -- and Storer's -- in the past.
Critics have said there should be a provision in the contracts in which the city could end services at any time.
Former City Councilman Bill Shurtleff said he routinely voted against Mason's contract because it didn't include such a clause and wasn't reviewed by an independent law firm.
That also was his reason for repeatedly rejecting Storer's retainer with the city.
"The only people who looked over it were the City Council and the mayor," he said. "I just think, from an ethical standpoint, when you're entering into a contract with an attorney you ought to have another attorney look at it and tell you whether you're getting a good deal or not."
But Shurtleff, who served on the Bonneville County Commission in the 1990s, doesn't hold Court and Clinical's contract to the same standard. He said the reason for that is because there aren't a lot of people in juvenile probation business.
He may be right.
Dan Chadwick, executive director of the Idaho Association of Counties, said a contract for private juvenile probation is a tough one to bid out.
It's one of the reasons why Jefferson County will soon be the only county in Idaho to use a private agency for juveniles.
It's definitely a hard sell, Christensen said. Keeping the contract with Moulton over the years without accepting bids from other agencies was a departure from the county's normal business practice, he said.
"Our general philosophy is to put things like that out for periodic bid," he said, which the county does for cases that conflict with the public defender's office.
That contract -- roughly $100,000 -- is with the Mallard Law Office and expires in May.
But that wasn't done with Moulton, Christensen said, because his contract was more of a "complex animal."
"If you look at the number of programs and things we developed with Dick, it would just be tough," he said.
The new county employees will be headed by Meri Bybee, who was Court and Clinical's juvenile program director.
She said she hopes all 22 employees will transfer with her. Although they most likely will have lower salaries than they did, she said the better health benefits they'll receive as county employees will offset the pay cut.
"I think this is a great move for everyone," she said.
Cops and Courts reporter Phil Davidson can be reached at 542-6750.
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Numbers game
n Idaho Falls City Attorney Dale Storer gets paid $89,000 a year from the city. His law firm, Holden, Kidwell, Hahn and Crapo, also bills the city as much as $165 an hour for cases that Storer directs to them that go beyond his duties as city attorney.
n Former city prosecutor Kimball Mason's contract was for $112,000 for fiscal year 2006.
n Bonneville County's contract with Court and Clinical Services to oversee juvenile probation services was $860,000 for fiscal year 2006.
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Did you know?
Idaho law doesn't require contracts for professional services to be put out to bid like it does for building or landscaping services or certain products.
That means one person or company can have a contract until elected officials decide otherwise.
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