City Hires Lawyer for New Position

Friday, July 04, 2008 11:59 AM

Prince George, B.C. – The City of Prince George has filled the position left vacant by the departure of City Clerk Don Schaffer.

The position “City Clerk” no longer exists under the Community Charter, instead, the new “title” is “Manager of Legislative Services”.

The person who will fill the post is Lawyer Walter Babicz of the Prince George legal firm Wilson, King and Company. The company’s web site says his areas of expertise are: commercial and residential real estate law, municipal law, corporate and commercial law, wills and estates and forestry law.

City Manager Derek Bates says Babicz will be paid $100 thousand a year. While that is about $10 thousand more than the City Clerk’s position was paid, Bates says there will be savings “The City spends anywhere from $100 thousand to $400 thousand a year in legal fees. Mr. Babicz will now handle all the routine legal agreements so that will result in significant savings for the City.”

In addition to his legal practice, Babicz teaches a municipal law course at UNBC.

He will take over his new duties at City Hall on October 1st.

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Posted on Friday, July 04, 2008 11:59 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: bohemian on July 4 2008 1:49 PM

This story doesn't make it clear that he is leaving his legal practice. He is, isn't he?

Or will this be like Radloff, a full time, high-priced admin job and an Engineering firm on the side?

Posted by: He speaks on July 4 2008 1:58 PM

Exactly, We fill up our upper management positions with part time employees. That's thinking progressive!

Posted by: owl on July 4 2008 3:31 PM

"Mr. Babicz will now handle all the routine legal agreements so that will result in significant savings for the City."

Interesting notion. One has to remember a few things:

1. will there be a profesional liability insurance which Mr. Babicz will carry as a professional, or will the city take over that liability since he is an employee of the City (or is he, since that is not quite clear)

2. the legal contracting out in the past not only included the coverager for the lawyer's time, but also time for law clerks, filing fees, photocopies, long idtance calls and other disbursements. So, will he be requiring addtional support at the Hall which would make for a bit of a different order of magnitude comparison? Likely still cheaper, but also not likely nearly as much at it appears.

Posted by: tinyapplecork on July 4 2008 7:14 PM

Manager of Legislative Services??

Posted by: BC Mary on July 5 2008 9:33 PM

So City of Prince George is getting a Bargain Barrister who multi-task.

Such a deal doesn't come along every day.

What does it take to keep this crowd smiling, anyway?