By Terry Witt- Spotlight Senior Reporter

                 A Gainesville law firm that offered to work for a flat fee of $45,000 annually was selected Tuesday to provide city attorney services for the Williston City Council.

            Folds, Walker, & Maltby, LLC., impressed a majority of council members with the simplicity of their proposal in contrast to the offer from Norm Fugate which several council members felt looked good on the surface but was not as attractive when the details were held up to closer examination. The Gainesville firm offered to do the work for a flat fee of $3,750 per month or a total of $45,000 annually.

            The firm was approved on a 4-1 vote. Councilman Elihu Ross cast the lone vote in opposition. Ross made a motion at the beginning of the discussion to approve the Fugate firm as the city attorney, but his motion died for lack of a second.

            Fugate offered to perform city attorney services for $750 per month, which works out to $9,000 per year, but his offer included only the first hour of the two council meetings each month. After the first hour ended, he would have charged $200 per hour.

            The four council members who voted for Folds, Walker, & Maltby liked the firm’s flat fee that included legal counsel for both council meetings each month, all advisory boards, and legal services for drafting or amending ordinances, reviewing contracts, and writing leases. The flat fee also covered emails and phone calls.

            Council President Debra Jones said Fugate would have charged extra for all those services which could have proved expensive.

            “Mr. Fugate charges for every lease, he charges for every contract to review, he charges for every resolution, he charges for every ordinance,” she said. “A certain amount of emails and phone calls he would not charge for if it was a short call or a short email and they didn’t have to do a lot of research.”

            She said Fugate’s written offer was changed in the meeting. In his written proposal, she said Fugate indicated he would charge for emails and phone calls, but upon being questioned by the council he amended his offer to say if the email or phone call was short and didn’t require a lot of research he wouldn’t charge.

           Jones and Councilwoman Marguerite Robinson independently researched the final three years that Fugate worked as the Williston city attorney to find out how much the city paid him for legal services. They said he was paid $75,744 in 2007-08, although Jones said some of that compensation could have been related to litigation. However, she said Fugate didn’t litigate for the city. Jones said he was paid $50,132 in 2008-09, and in 2009-10 he was paid $40,027 for a partial year.

            “At first blush when you look at the Fugate firm, the $750 per month looks wonderful, but when you read the whole package and you ask the questions and it includes absolutely nothing except attending two council meetings and a Community Redevelopment Agency meeting, which he added (when he was responding to questions). Everything else was $200 an hour or $100 an hour for a legal assistant if you talk to her instead of him,” Jones said.

            Councilman Michael Cox led the push to hire the Gainesville law firm. He noted that the company would provide legal advice for all the city boards and he said the company is experienced in dealing with the type of economic growth that is headed for Williston.

            “They said Alachua County is growing and it’s coming this way. This firm has some firsthand knowledge of what we can expect in our area down the road. They bring a lot of experience. They have a lot of longevity with their other clients – Newberry since 1971,” Cox said.  

            Councilwoman Darfeness Hinds felt the Fugate proposal might create problems for the council down the road as the cost of legal services began to rise.

            “I felt the Fugate fee proposal; I felt like as time went on it would be very costly and as we’re getting ready to prepare our budget we don’t have specifics on the ground floor,” she said. “We may look later, as we continue to go forward, and see we’re being charged kind of nickel and dime.”

            Councilman Elihu Ross took the opposite view as fellow council members. Later in the meeting, when asked by Jones if he had any additional comments to make, Ross said he felt the Fugate law firm had the most knowledge of Williston and the county and provided the most economical offer.

            “It still looks to me like Folds and Walker is going to be more expensive over the long haul plus the fact that the Fugate firm is familiar with the City of Williston and also with litigation and those matters, as opposed to Gainesville and Alachua County,” Ross said. “I feel like if I’m shopping, I shop local rather than out of the city; I can find something that’s going to work as good or better; for that reason, I think the Fugate firm would be the more economic and better informed to represent us over the long haul.”

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City of Williston Regular Meeting July 6, 2021; Posted July 8, 2021.