City Council voices support for in-house legal department

File photo: Patrick Gilligan [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2022.

The Ocala City Council has unanimously agreed to join other similarly sized cities in creating an in-house legal department to handle legal services, a significant step away from its longstanding practice of contracting with a private law firm.

In a second workshop on the issue on March 28, the city instructed staff to bring back a proposal for an executive recruiter at the next regularly scheduled meeting. The anticipated cost of those services was estimated at $20,000 to $30,000 and the process would take four to six months.

The workshop was scheduled following the announcement that two attorneys, Jimmy Gooding and Rob Batsel Sr., were splitting from the firm that had represented the city for 30 years: Gilligan, Gooding, Batsel, Anderson & Phelan, PA. 

Batsel and Gooding previously told the Gazette that after the firm’s contract with the city ends on Oct. 31, their focus be on their private real estate land-use practice. At the workshop, Batsel told the council that after Nov. 1 he would be representing developers before the city and therefore he would only be available except for certain limited issues because of possible conflicts of interest.

Batsel and Gooding intended to continue to share office space with the law firm and felt that the financial split from the firm would allow the firm to continue representing the city without any conflicts of interest, if council decided to stick with the firm.

With the understanding that hiring new counsel was in the works, Patrick Gilligan, a partner at the law firm, indicated he was going to meet with his partners and decide what resources they could commit to bridging in gaps between the contract ending and getting the new legal department up and running.

During the first workshop, City Manager Sandra Wilson told the council they could initially budget $950,000 a year for a five-person legal department. 

Gilligan, Gooding, Batsel, Anderson & Phelan’s billing for 2018-2019 totaled $1,084,638.81; $897,757.95 in 2019-2020 and $918,752.94 in 2020-2021, according to a presentation given in the first workshop.