KC Council committee approves more legal bills as big KCI decision looms

A Kansas City Council committee on Wednesday voted to pay up its legal bills associated with the KCI single terminal project that. If approved by the full council, that would bring the city’s spending on outside attorneys and advisers to $1.3 million.

The Kansas City Finance & Governance Committee approved $50,000 for Husch Blackwell and WilmerHale, two firms picked earlier this year to guide the city council as it picked and negotiated with a developer of the $1 billion single terminal project. That $50,000 would bring the city current on outstanding legal bills related to KCI.

The Kansas City Council earlier this year hired Husch Blackwell and WilmerHale to help the city stay on legal track as it put the KCI contract out to competitive procurement. The firms were originally given $475,000, but another extension to their work brought the legal contract up to nearly $1 million.

Now the legal spending has exceeded what was approved by ordinance, but committee members said Wednesday that in the context of a $1 billion project, the city’s spending on lawyers has not been out of line.

But it comes not quite a week after a super-majority of council members rejected an memorandum of understanding with Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate, the developer picked to develop the KCI single terminal.

Council members said they had concerns about the vague terms of the MOU, the lack of a specific financial framework on the project and insufficient minority hiring and community benefits commitments from Edgemoor. Charles Renner, a partner in Husch Blackwell’s Kansas City office, has been Kansas City’s lead negotiator on the project.

That sets the table for what could be a lively debate at City Hall on Thursday, as the Airport Committee is scheduled to discuss a resolution introduced by Kansas City Councilman Lee Barnes to end further negotiations with Edgemoor and start talks with KCI Partnership.

KCI Partnership, which is led by Los Angeles firm AECOM, was the runner-up to the KCI selection process earlier this year. On Monday, KCI Partnership added to it team Burns & McDonnell, the Kansas City engineering firm that was disqualified from bidding on KCI, as it prepares for the possibility that Kansas City dumps Edgemoor.

Kansas City Mayor Sly James said Tuesday he wants to keep negotiating with Edgemoor. If those talks aren’t fruitful, James said, he would prefer re-bidding the project instead of moving on to KCI Partnership.

Galen Beaufort, a City Hall attorney, said the city has received “great advice and deep research” from its outside attorneys and advisers. Kansas City Councilman Quinton Lucas applauded Beaufort’s work, saying he worked 365 hours of his own time during the last six months on KCI matters.

Assuming a $500 hourly rate, Beaufort’s work comes out to $182,500 in legal fees that the city didn’t have to spend on further outside legal advice, Lucas said. Beaufort made $161,013 in gross wages from City Hall in 2016.

Lucas said on Wednesday that further scrutiny on the city’s legal spending on KCI is going to be in place, including reviewing legal bills every two weeks and limiting the number of attorneys billing hours on KCI.

“We wanted to make sure there are safeguards so the public knows there is no fleecing,” Lucas said.

This story was originally published December 20, 2017 at 1:16 PM with the headline "KC Council committee approves more legal bills as big KCI decision looms."