ROGERS -- The need for an attorney on a daily basis prompted the Rogers Waterworks and Sewer Commission on Monday to hire a local attorney as interim attorney for the utility.
Robert Frazier served as the commission attorney from 2008 to 2011. He has an office on Chestnut Street near Rogers City Hall.
Frazier will be paid $200 per hour for his services, utility officials said.
"I'm familiar with the way the commission and utility work, having served as their attorney before. I will have a short learning curve while I catch up with the years from 2011 though 2014, but I don't anticipate any real problems," Frazier said.
The commission and utility have been without local representation since Oct. 6 when commissioners canceled its contract with City Attorney Ben Lipscomb. Mark Hayes, an attorney with the Arkansas Municipal League, has been advising the utility since.
The utility's contract with the city was based on the city hiring a third attorney for the city attorney's office. The utility agreed to pay $50,000 per year to pay part of the third attorney's salary. When Chris Griffin was moved from his deputy city attorney position to become staff attorney answering to Mayor Greg Hines, the contract became invalid, said Don Kendall, chairman of the utility.
"We need an attorney every day to answer legal questions," said Earl Rausch, utility superintendent. "We get (Freedom of Information Act) requests all the time, and have other legal situations that I think we need to run by an attorney. Hayes advised us to go ahead and hire an attorney until we can hire a permanent attorney. We plan begin the search process in a couple of weeks."
Commissioners will ask for attorneys to submit their qualifications to the utility, Rausch said. Utility managers will narrow the list to the top three candidates.
"We'll turn the top three attorneys over to the commissioners for them to interview. I expect it will March or April before an attorney is selected," Rausch said.
"Robert will be helping us as we look for a permanent attorney. He can help us with qualifications, and the initial selection process," Rausch said.
NW News on 12/16/2014