Firm and city come to terms on legal fees

With a little give and take, city officials and an Indianapolis legal firm came to terms on the amount of overage charged during the process to create a large tax increment finance district in Jasper.

The Jasper Redevelopment Commission heard today that the firm of Barnes and Thornburg had reduced their fee by $5,000 from the $21,500 they had charged for services rendered.

The redevelopment commission had originally agreed to pay the firm no more than $10,000 for their work on the TIF district.

According to City Attorney Renee Kabrick, the firm had completed the work and played an important role in creating the district. The only caveat being, they didn’t inform the commission when their billables began to approach the $10,000 threshold originally approved.

Besides Barnes and Thornburg, the two other firms associated with developing the tax increment finance district enveloping approximately a third of the City of Jasper exceeded the thresholds of the their contracts.

According to commission president John Bell, the work to create the district including the additional public meetings were necessary to complete the district and the amounts were a fair representation of that work.

Last month, Umbaugh and Associates and CWC Latitudes both reduced their fees to meet the thresholds established for the contract. Umbaugh and Associates reduced their fee from $12,500 to the agreed $7,500. CWC Latitudes reduced their fee from $27,500 to the agreed upon $25,000.

The commission approved the payments except for Barnes and Thornburg. Kabrick was directed to contact them to see if they would negotiate the price.

Kabrick presented the remaining balance of about $6,500 to the redevelopment commission for payment approval. The commission agreed that the firm had completed the work and approved the payment unanimously.