The City Council held a special meeting on September 16, 2026 (originally scheduled for September 15, 2026 per the agenda) to consider and vote on a personal services agreement with Ahlers Cressman & Sleight PLLC for legal representation in disputes related to the Edmonds Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) Phase 6 Carbon Recovery Project. The meeting lasted approximately 25 minutes, ending at 2:55 PM local time.
Approval of Personal Services Agreement with Ahlers Cressman & Sleight PLLC – Council considered a motion to authorize the mayor to sign the attached agreement with Ahlers Cressman & Sleight PLLC, a construction litigation law firm, to assist the city in resolving disputes with Ameresco concerning the WWTP project. City Attorney Terrady presented the recommendation, stating the firm is one of the best construction litigation firms in the Seattle area and was identified through consultations with trusted sources who have observed their performance in similar settings.
Council members discussed several aspects:
Good afternoon, everybody. It is September 15th at 2 30, and this is a special meeting of the Edmund City Council, which I will now call to order. There is one item of business, which is to consider approval of a personal service agreement with Aller's Questman and SLIT PLLC. I'm going to ask uh Mr. Terraday to introduce the topic, please. Yes, thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon, council. Yeah, this is a recommended personal services agreement with Alars Crestman and SLIT PLLC. It's a construction litigation law firm that we have identified as being a great fit to assist the city in the resolution of its disputes with Amheresco concerning the wastewater treatment plant project. We have reason to believe that this is one of the best, if not the best, construction litigation firms in the Seattle area, and recommend with confidence that the council proceed with their engagement to uh assist the city in those efforts. So it's a fairly straightforward hourly basis uh legal services agreement. And I'm happy to answer any questions about it. Thank you, Mr. Terrady. Uh after uh conversation with um uh uh council president um, I think we want to start with her uh and potentially a motion. And then uh what she has requested is to make sure that everybody gets an opportunity that we would do around Robin and also um uh start with a two-minute um limitation. And I'll just do it in the uh in reverse order of your position numbers. Uh but first I'll start with um Council President Dash. Mayor, um I move to authorize the mayor to sign the attached personal services agreement with Ailers, Crustman, and SLIT ELLC. I would second thank you very much. Uh with that, we'll open it for discussion. As I mentioned, I'll just call on you. We'll do uh two minutes to either make comments or uh ask questions, and I'll go in reverse order, which uh would make council member Nan first. Oh, well, thank you, Mayor. I was actually the last person to raise my hand. Um I just wanted to uh thank the city attorney and the administration for bringing this forward. And I uh am very pleased with the qualifications as described of the uh outside council that we're engaging and hope that we're able to um achieve speedy resolution of this matter. Thank you. Um continuing again, position six, councilmember Payne. Thank you. I'm in support of the motion, and I don't have any concerns with the choice. Thank you. Uh Councilmember Olson. Uh yes, I had two questions, and if it's appropriate to ask them both, or I could do round robin one. Um the I I um know that we had basically a guarantee by the state that um we would have a working product and that um it wouldn't exceed a certain amount. And I've been asked um with the state um kind of guarantee whether there's um any reason why the state isn't um the one who is funding the legal um uh proceedings that might be going forward. Yeah. Uh thanks for the question, Councilman Rolson. So the the guarantee is actually from MRESCO, not the state. Uh that's that's one significant thing to note. And under the energy services performance contracting statute, DES, the state acts as the city's contracting agent, uh, but not as its lawyer. So we still are responsible for providing our own legal services. Uh the state does not provide those for us under the arrangement. As to whether the the utilities ratepayers would ultimately foot the bill for those legal services, that likely won't be known until the disputes are resolved. I would note that attorneys' fees are a recoverable cost to the prevailing party under the general conditions in the contract. So that that is a possible source of recovery. Um, so I was referring to Department of Enterprise Services when I was referring to the state. So everything you still said is unchanged based on that. Correct. Okay.