North Las Vegas: Council may contract outside legal services

Diana Sahagun

Thursday, Oct. 7, 1999 | 11:59 a.m.

The North Las Vegas City Council is considering hiring a private, outside lawyer as a new city attorney.

The council voted 5-0 Wednesday to designate Councilmember Stephanie Smith to help City Manager Pat Importuna draft a proposed contract for a private law firm.

They will present their findings at the next council meeting.

Past city attorneys have reported directly to the city manager, but a change to the city charter that became effective Oct. 1 now requires the city attorney to report to the council.

That leaves in the council's hands the job of deciding whether to contract outside services.

Since late June members of the city's staff have studied the prospect of hiring an outside attorney for the position and sought interested parties. Two replied: the local law firm of Kummer, Kaempfer, Bonner and Renshaw, and attorney Steve George.

Mark Zaloras, a lawyer on the city staff, is acting as city attorney. He could be considered for the permanent city attorney position as well.

The Attorney General's office then told the city that its charter would not allow a law firm to take the job.

City Councilmember William Robinson said that something just didn't seem right about the limited amount of responses from law firms and lawyers.

"There's been rumors of privatization ... and it seems strange to me that out of 115 requests, we only got two responses," adding that he questioned the attorney general's opinion.

Importuna said if the position is privatized it will be a big change for the city, which has relied in the past on attorneys employed as city staff. But he said it's not a unique arrangement, as Caliente and Elko use outside firms.

"I think the council is interested in broadening the depth of experience of legal services," he said. "We're just trying to explore another way of providing services."