The mayor of South Beloit is considering taking over negotiations with city unions, citing slow results and large expense.

Mayor Randy Kirichkow estimates that the city has spent $320,000 on attorney’s fees in the last five years negotiating with the three city unions, which include the police officers, police sergeants and Street Department employees.

Kirichkow is ready to eliminate the city’s labor attorney, Jill Leka of Seyfarth and Shaw LLP, and negotiate directly with city employees face-to-face.

“Right now we’ve got one contract done,” Kirichkow said. “We were told by our labor attorney last fall that the sergeant’s contract would be done by the end of December and the Street Department would be done by April 1. There is no incentive for the attorneys to settle when they’re making $395 an hour. It seems senseless to continue to pay the attorney rather than just meet face-to-face and come to an agreement.”

The article caught the eye because the City of DeKalb uses the same firm. DeKalb paid Seyfarth Shaw $3183.50 in May (PDF p. 86). Read the rest of this entry