March 31, 2008

RICKY WILKINS FEEDING AGAIN AT THE TAXPAYER HOG TROUGH

On December 1, 2007 I sent the following open records request to our City Attorney, Elbert Jefferson.

Dear Mr. Jefferson,

As a taxpayer of the City of Memphis I would like to inspect the

municipal documents, records, letters and communications, both written

and in electronic form, that contain information relevant to the

following subjects.

1) I want to inspect the records and documents that show all

information about the hiring of Mr. Ricky Wilkins and/or his law firm as

a legal council or advisor to the charter commission. I want to see any

contract or communication that shows the agreement as to the cost of his

services to the charter commission and that addresses the services that

he is to perform.

After repeated requests for a reply and preparation for a open records suit in Chancery Court, I finally got the following answer from Mr. Jefferson.

I am unaware of any separate contract for his services. You should have his existing contract already. The Charter Commission has requested the monies authorized by the Council last year for legal and other support services. If I am not mistaken, the Council authorized $100K for temporary support staff, legal and other services. Any Council actions on those items are available via the City Council's website.

I then emailed City Councilman Myron Lowery to tell him of the stonewalling of Mr. Jefferson and he got in touch with Mr. Jefferson and I got a prompt reply for which I thank Mr. Lowery.

This office previously responded to Mr. Saino that we were unaware of any separate contract between the Law Offices of Ricky Wilkins and the City of Memphis, by and through Charter Commission or its City Council. If I am not mistaken, Mr. Saino has previously requested and received documentation regarding the attorney fees paid to The Law Office of Ricky Wilkins. It is our understanding that the Charter Commission agreed to an unwritten arrangement in which The Law Office of Ricky Wilkins was to perform legal services averaged on a monthly basis at the rate of $210 per hour, not to exceed $15,000 per month. Payment at the $15,000 rate was made for two months. The Charter Commission reduced the amount of work required of Mr. Wilkins to an average of $5,000 per month. We are unaware of a formal document that sets forth the specific tasks to be performed; however, they appear to be numerous based on the proposed clean-up of the current Charter and specific items identified through the numerous community meetings. Only the City Attorney and Mayor have authority to hire Special Counsel. Thus, the City's existing contract with The Law Office of Ricky Wilkins was used for purposes of relating services between the City, the Charter Commission, the City Council and The Law Offices of Ricky Wilkins and payment of invoices. The City Attorney's Office pays the invoices and receives reimbursement from the City Council based upon the $100,000 dollars approved by last year's Council. Invoices from outside counsel contain privileged information, including proposed strategies and thus are protected by the attorney-client privilege. Nonetheless, it is my understanding that the City has paid approximately $50,000 for services rendered since September 2007.

Obviously, Mr. Jefferson knew this information all along but did not want to reveal the information until prodded by Councilman Lowery. It is interesting that there is no written contract and Mr. Wilkins billed $15,000 per month (the monthly maximum) until they cut him back to $5000/month and then he billed the maximum per month for four months for the $50,000 to date. I have been to most of the Charter Commission meeting and his $50,000 of work is certainly not in evidence. Also where are his billing and work records to justify the payment?

I have investigated legal fees paid to friends of the Mayor in the past but have not updated my files to current date. I have attached the 2005 records for Ricky Wilkins, Allan Wade and Robert Spence and you will see that he had received nearly $2.5 million dollars then. No telling what it is now. Nice work if you can get it and you can if you are a friend of our wonderful Mayor.

Click here to see the lawyer friends of the Mayor who are feeding at the taxpayers funded hog trough