Indianola City Attorney Derek Hopson returned $4,119 to the city’s coffers late last week.
This came after The Enterprise-Tocsin’s questions regarding a portion of Hopson’s overall $38,887 bill to the city, which seemed to include work that predated his November 18, 2024 employment.
Hopson’s return of the money is out of an abundance of caution while he said that he is researching to see if that portion of the payment is allowable.
The city paid the invoice in its totality during last Monday night’s board of aldermen meeting.
Ward 1 Alderman Gary Fratesi was the lone nay vote on the claims docket, while Ward 3 Alderman Ruben Woods, Ward 4 Alderman Marvin Elder and Ward 5 Alderman Sam Brock voted in favor.
“This is illegal,” Fratesi said after casting his vote.
Hopson was retained by the city on November 18, 2024, as special counsel to look into the possibility of recovering funds related to the Spencer Construction payout.
He was hired as city attorney the following month.
Items on multiple invoices obtained last week by The E-T show charges for work as far back as September, totaling $4,119.
During a phone conversation with The E-T before last week’s deadline, Hopson denied having ever entered into a formal agreement to represent Aldermen Woods, Elder and Brock in their fight against the auditor’s demands and a subsequent lawsuit filed by the attorney general’s office related to the Spencer debacle.
During a September 23, 2024, executive session, Woods, Elder and Brock, the only three aldermen in attendance at that time, voted to retain Hopson to represent them personally on the city’s dime, according to unofficial minutes obtained by The E-T.
The city likely would not be allowed under law to pay for the aldermen’s defense since it has to do with a state auditor’s demand and involves the city as the plaintiff and the aldermen as the defendants in that case.
Former City Attorney Kimberly Merchant had been asked to leave that executive session and was not present for the vote.
“It should be noted that any ambiguity as to the start date possibly arises from the fact that the city has long been without a city clerk and having minutes left unedited and/or unapproved and not being contemporaneously keep in the official minute book,” Hopson noted in a follow-up statement to The E-T on Thursday.
Former City Clerk Angela Goodwin was present for the Sept. 23 meeting, and she participated in the executive session.
Hopson indicated during a follow-up phone conversation this week that he was not aware that the September vote was to retain him to represent the three aldermen personally and that the vote, as reflected in the unofficial minutes, may be problematic.
He said that he had instructed his office on Thursday morning to return the $4,119 back to the city for now, and he said that he would research whether any payments prior to November 18, 2024, would be allowable.
Also included in the $27,000 invoice is a $14,100 charge for Hopson’s retention of Brown & Associates as an expert witness in the Home Corporation case.
On the same day that the city first retained Hopson, the board also voted to authorize Brown & Associates’ Dr. Adrian Brown to visit with Housing & Urban Development officials on behalf of the city while he was in Washington D.C. on other business.
“We did not charge the city for that,” Brown told The E-T this week. “There was no charge.”
Brown confirmed that he was retained by Hopson and received a payment close to the amount on the line item on the invoice, but he said that he was not aware that this would be passed on to the city.
Hopson defended his hiring of Brown and the charge to the city.
“In what world would a lawyer represent you and not hire an expert in the field to handle whatever is helpful to the fact-finder to make a decision?” he asked. “That’s what you call an expert.”
Also during the claims docket discussion on Monday, Alderman Fratesi questioned the payment of $38,877 to Hopson for one month’s services.
“I remember when (former City Attorney) Dean Belk didn’t get $30,000 for a whole year.”
According to Hopson’s contract with the city, he is paid a base salary of $1,500 per month, plus $200 an hour for professional services that fall outside of his normal scope of work.
According to recent claims dockets examined by The E-T, Hopson had billed the city for a total of $67,000 since he was retained last November.
The E-T also obtained records from the city that suggest that over the year-and-a-half prior to Hopson’s hire, the city paid a total of just over $97,000 to former City Attorney Kimberly Merchant.
