Former Solvang City Attorney Chip Wullbrandt resigned on Dec. 18, days prior to a special meeting on Dec. 21 that agendized his potential dismissal from the city.
The City Council unanimously accepted Wullbrandt’s resignation and welcomed a familiar face as the city’s interim attorney. Mayor Charlie Uhrig told the Sun that his 2020 campaign and the campaigns of several other City Council candidates touched upon billing charges for legal counsel from Price, Postel & Parma LLP—the law firm Wullbrandt is a partner of.
“Even prior to any of us filing for candidacy there was talk about trying to limit the charges,” Uhrig said. “I know a number of us all ran on wanting to be able to try and see what we could do to mitigate those costs.”
Wullbrandt’s contracted hourly rate of $335 was higher than that of his predecessors. According to the city’s 2015-16 fiscal year budget, legal fees amounted to $74,682. Fees grew to $80,000 in 2018-19. Wullbrandt’s hourly rate came under fire on April 27, 2020, when the council received and approved his invoice for the month, which totaled $57,000—on a non-itemized invoice. Invoices for the months of January through March totaled nearly $125,000.
“My ultimate goal was to see what we can do to mitigate the cost of all of the city services, especially the contract ones,” Uhrig said.
That was why Uhrig called the special meeting. However he said he didn’t anticipate Wullbrandt emailing a resignation three days before the meeting. The city hasn’t made that email available to the public yet.
The new council, Uhrig said, will continue to look into the city’s other by-contract services to analyze the potential for further cost reductions. Either way, Uhrig said, it would be good for the council understand Solvang’s current expenses.
After former legal counsel David Fleishman—from the Atascadero-based firm Hanley & Fleishman—resigned in May 2019, the city named Wullbrandt as interim city attorney. Fleishman is now returning to the city he formerly served for 21 years.
During the Dec. 21 meeting, Fleishman said his firm would be charging a rate of $225 an hour for up to 50 hours of service per month, and $250 an hour for anything more than that, plus $295 an hour for any litigation services.
“The general scope of services based on my prior experience with the city, I can’t think of too many months where we exceeded the 50-hour level. So I would anticipate that the city would experience some significant cost savings almost immediately in the legal services budget line,” he said.
Wullbrandt leaves Solvang weeks after offering legal advice on the former council’s decision to defy Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest stay-at-home orders by stating it wouldn’t use city resources to enforce them in early December. Uhrig and other new City Council members publicly opposed the former council’s decision. He told the Sun that the decision and legal advice, for him, definitely played a role in wanting to change the city’s attorney services.
Uhrig said he can’t speak for the entire council, but he feels that they’re all working together and doing their best for the city of Solvang.
“Just trying to move forward and hope that this coming year we will be a better year than what we’ve had,” Uhrig said.
—Karen Garcia
This article appears in Dec 31, 2020 – Jan 7, 2021.