KATRINA BOGUSKI
Freelance
Palmer Rapids- All councillors were present at the BLR council meeting held on April 6. This meeting was the first regular council meeting for councillors Valerie Jahn and Wayne Banks who were recently appointed to council to fill two vacant seats.
Councillor Kauffeldt declared a pecuniary interest related to a payment to Kauffeldt Grocery. Minutes from the regular meeting of March 2nd and those of two special meetings held March 16 and 30 were adopted.
Municipal manager Andrew Sprunt presented item 6.2 on the agenda which pertained to a report on legal costs related to former councillors Budarick and Lidtkie. This report had been requested by council at an earlier meeting and was delayed while staff waited to receive the final invoices from the lawyers.
Sprunt said, “so basically, it’s pretty simple, the total costs of the investigations were $176,473.10 …the legal costs associated with both councillors for the court were $104,560.33 for the Budarick file and the Lidtkie file was $15,278.22.” Mayor Keller replied to this report saying, “So just shy of $300,000.”
Jahn asked if the costs reflect the costs that were awarded in court to be repaid. Sprunt responded, that the short answer was probably no, but that it was something that could be looked into. Other than the question from Jahn, there was no discussion or comment on the report regarding the legal costs.
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