Brentwood's Labor Attorney Fees Double in 2011

Brentwood has tallied more than $85,000 in labor attorney fees so far in 2011, more than double what the city paid its labor attorney last year.

Slightly less than half of the total ($35,470) highlights the list of expenditures that the Brentwood Board of Aldermen is scheduled to view on Monday night. The regularly-scheduled meeting starts at 7 p.m. at .

The city contracts Hesse Martone, a Town and Country-based attorney group, to handle some of the city's legal matters. Attorney Chris Hesse was present during the night before former city administrator on March 11, for example. Seemayer later pleaded guilty to embezzling $30,000 in city funds to pay for gambling at the .

For comparison: Brentwood paid the attorney group $42,330 in 2010 and $57,502 in 2009.

But the city has already doubled 2010's figures this year. And while city officials can't comment on the nature of the legal matters—citing the information as closed to the public—the legal tab jumped into the tens of thousands of dollars in April, the month following Seemayer's resignation. The city accumulated nearly $50,000 in fees for Hesse by the middle of June.

The latest round of fees follows the city's most recent financial scandal. The that Brentwood firefighters were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in undeserved overtime pay over more than two decades. Hesse negotiated a settlement with the fire department's union attorney in May, noted the article.

Other items are scheduled for the Board of Aldermen agenda on Monday night:

• The board is scheduled to vote on an agreement with St. Louis County to offer energy efficiency loans to residents.
• A $49,000 agreement to hire George Butler Associates for engineering and architecture services of the Rose Avenue Pedestrian Improvement project is on the agenda.
• A closed meeting to discuss legal and personnel matters is planned following the public meeting.