MANCHESTER — Halfway through the fiscal year, Manchester is within $5 of spending its entire $90,000 legal budget.
"We are $4.87 away" from spending $90,000 in fiscal 2012, said Town Administrator Wayne Melville.
According to Melville, both litigation costs and representation in town labor talks have driven the cost so high.
"Labor is up because we've been having our labor counsel sit in on all our labor issues," Melville said.
The data provided by Melville goes to the end of December and shows that Manchester had spent $89,995.13 on legal fees, with six months left to be billed.
Manchester has spent $50,435 on representation in nine different disputes in litigation. Most of those suits involve disputes over zoning.
One of the larger suits, Winslow vs. McKiel, cost the town $6,860 to defend, but a recent court decision has ended that particular litigation.
The case, resulting from a dispute over weapons and a revoked gun license, was dismissed, but the underlying dispute is still being handled by the town's insurance company and remains active.
Manchester has also spent $10,185 defending a suit filed by Hamid Shirkhan against the Conservation Commission over a seawall built on Shirkhan's Smith Point Road property — a wall the commission said was constructed without its permission.
The bulk of the legal spending was billed by Kopelman and Paige, the Boston-based law firms that also represents Essex and Rockport on Cape Ann and dozens of towns around the state. Kopelman and Paige had billed Manchester $70,147.63 through the end of December.
Feeley and Brown, the firm that represents Manchester in labor issues, billed $19,847.50 through Dec. 31 as well.
One major case involving Manchester — Johnson vs. Melville et al. — is being handled by the town's insurance company and is not counted in the legal budget. In the lawsuit, Caroline Johnson, the town's former treasurer and collector, alleges that she was mistreated by town officials and that town officials tried to sabotage her chances of finding another job after declining to reappoint her.
Johnson, meanwhile, was named interim treasurer for the town of Wenham in January.
Melville said he thought the peculiarities of municipal budgets are to blame for why Manchester is poised to go into deficit for its legal spending.
"The problem is you have to estimate these expenses 18 months in advance," said Melville.
According to Melville, if he had known more about how many suits the town would be facing, he would have asked for more money to be put in the legal budget. Last year, the town had a budget of $85,000 for legal expenses, and had money left over.
Melville says he plans to ask for $100,000 in the legal budget for fiscal 2013, which begins July 1. Until then, Melville said he is not sure of how much the town will spend in legal costs, but estimated a possible total of $179,990.26 based on how much has been spent so far.
The fiscal year ends June 30.
Stephanie Bergman can contacted at 978-283-7000 x3451 or sbergman@gloucestertimes.com
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