St. Paul hiring third outside firm tied to allegations against Mayor Her

St. Paul hiring third outside firm tied to allegations against Mayor Her Renée Cooper KSTP St. Paul to hire third law firm connected to mayor St. Paul is hiring a third outside law firm as the city decides whether taxpayers must cover Mayor Kaohly Her’s legal costs.The city first hired a private firm to investigate Police Chief Axel Henry’s HR complaint against Mayor Her. The redacted results were made public last week, one day after the City Council approved hiring a private law firm to defend Her.The latest private hire was approved by City Council members on Wednesday. This firm will help decide whether the city and its taxpayers have to cover her legal costs. The money to pay for at least the last two hires will be pulled from the city’s general fund, straining a city and its taxpayers facing a $26 million budget gap.State law requirements and possible exceptionsState law requires cities to “defend and indemnify” — meaning, cover the legal costs of — its leaders and employees, provided they were “acting in the performance of the duties of the position,” and they are “not guilty of malfeasance in office, willful neglect of duty, or bad faith.” The City Council has tasked this latest private firm with determining whether this case falls under one of those exceptions.“The default right now is state law that requires council to basically pay for the mayor’s legal expenses,” Hamline University legal studies professor David Schultz said.So, from a strictly legal point of view, that’s what we’re looking at here. Do they have legal grounds not to do this?”The city attorney would usually help answer that question, but as the City Council resolution stated, there is a potential conflict of interest. Irene Kao, the city attorney, was appointed by the mayor. The resolution also stated this latest private firm would be paid at a discounted rate of up to $325 an hour.Asked if there could be an exception in this case, Schultz said, “There could very well be… There’s a lot of case law across the country that has argued that in some situations, things like sexual harassment are not considered to be official duties of any public official.”Schultz said he has seen similar cases go both ways, so he called the determination a toss-up at this point. He also said taxpayers will still end up paying in some form no matter what the city decides.Total cost estimate ‘dramatically higher’“There is no good answer here that’s going to get the taxpayer out of having to pay anything, that the city’s getting sued no matter what.” Schultz said.“They’re going to probably undertake more legal expenses if they decide not to indemnify the mayor because she’s going to probably sue the city herself, plus they’re going to then have to spend money to defend that lawsuit, plus the underlying lawsuit against the mayor and the city.” Schultz said his initial low-end estimate made last week for legal costs, when/if the case makes it all the way through the court, was a “low ball.”“If we’re talking about both just the litigation expenses and then possible judgments, I think $1 to 2 million is a significant low ball now, and we’re looking at dramatically higher than that.”When asked for an estimate, Schultz said, “$5 to 10 million.”St. Paul residents reactClare Gobran, a St. Paul resident, said, “It’s tough knowing that our tax dollars are going towards that rather than, like, education or childcare, or any of those other things that we’re all struggling with right now.”“I think, we voted for her, and that we need to support her and get the investigation done, and you know I’m sure she’ll learn from it… but I think it’s a big political thing,” said St. Paul resident Sharon Marcotte. “So yes, I think that we should pay her legal bills.”Anne Brokaw, another St. Paul resident, said, “She did something wrong, we shouldn’t have to pay for that.”