Originally estimated to run $425,000, the city’s legal costs for selling its electric system now stand at three times that amount with no end in sight. The transactional attorneys hired in August 2011 have billed the city $1.2 million. Recently the City Council authorized an additional $200,000. No one is expecting the legal bill to top out at $1.4 million, though. City Manager Jim O’Connor said, “They (the transactional attorneys) will make further requests as necessary as we go forward.”
Indian River Guardian 
I’m left with the impression that the City of Vero Beach is a willing victim of highway robbery. How could any government entity so underestimate the cost of something……oh, wait a minute….let me change that to how could our local government so underestimate the total cost of such a major change? Running a city can’t be easy, but at this rate, the citizens of VB might consider running for the hills as an option. This is unnerving.
The transaction attorney fees are an assault on the taxpayers and should result in the mass resignation of all of those who have been involved in bilking the public in this manner.
A least Mark Schumann put a little humor in a very serious matter….the mounting attorney fees. I almost would not care if not for the fact that the Vero Beach City Council keeps passing on these fees to us, the ratepayers during the process of the sale.