By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
When Bob Suelter retired last November, he took 42 years serving as the Great Bend City Attorney with him. The city responded with contracting out the attorney and prosecutor positions to local law firm Watkins Calcara. Each position was paid $7,000 per month.
Allen Glendenning is now transitioning away
from his current practice and will become Great Bend's full-time attorney and
prosecutor in November.
Glendenning has been serving as city attorney the past year on a part-time
basis. Great Bend learned that the attorney’s workload requires a more
full-time presence.
City Administrator Kendal Francis said Watkins Calcara will
provide the full-time attorney for a flat fee of $14,000 per month. Watkins
will provide workman’s comp and other insurances for Glendenning.
"We were paying them based on 40 hours a month for the prosecutor and 40 hours a month for the attorney," said Francis. "Now we're putting it into one position on 40 hours a week. Anything above 40 hours, we were paying a flat rate of $200 an hour. It wasn't like they were stopping at 40 hours. They continued to put in additional hours."
The $168,000 annual salary for the city attorney position was approved to begin
Nov. 1 and has a term of three years ending in 2025.
The city will continue to provide a legal staff position to assist Glendenning.
Great Bend also understands that Glendenning will need time to transition from
part-time to fulltime by concluding or transferring from cases he is currently
handling at Watkins.