McMinnville officials will be considering a change in how the city pays its attorney, from hourly to a flat rate. The suggested change comes after computer issues.

“It turns out that our city attorney is not a tech genius,” said Alderman Everett Brock. “He’s managed to corrupt his files for the last, something like 18 months.”

City attorney Tim Pirtle says he, as well as the city’s information technology technician, attempted to recover and rescue the information and both efforts were largely unsuccessful. 

“It was essentially a lost cause,” said Pirtle. “The data that was lost is irretrievable.” 

Pirtle is paid $250 per hour. However, he hasn’t been paid since March 1, 2018.

“We owe him some back salary,” said Brock. “What we did was pull up the last 18 months of what we had paid counsel. We averaged them out. The average was around $3,666 a month. We did it another way, just to check it out. We eliminated the high and eliminated the low and it came within about $50 to $60 within that same amount.”

The information was presented to members of the city’s Finance Committee. 

“The attorney would like to go onto a fixed salary retainer,” said Brock.

Pirtle added, “Like the county’s attorney.” 

Warren County government pays its attorney a retainer fee of $6,000 a month. That allowance pays for services rendered during the month, rather than paying the attorney per hour. 

“I would like to pay him up until the first of the year and then we will see if we can go on a retainer system instead of a bill-by-the-hour system,” said Brock. “I would like to pay him $3,666 a month for his back pay and use that number until the first of the year.”

Finance Committee members approved the recommendation. 

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen will consider the committee’s recommendation during its regular session this Tuesday, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m. A change in the fee structure would require a new agreement. The city has been with the firm of Pirtle & Little since October 2010.