(June 20, 2006) -- Responding to a request from LBReport.com, City Attorney Bob Shannon has provided us with his office's legal view of the May 23 Council action on an item agendized by city management to give Mayor Beverly O'Neill a taxpayer-paid "golden handshake," crediting her on retirement with 50 hours of sick leave per year of incumbency (in her case amounting to 600 hours of sick leave).

City Attorney Shannon told us this morning:

"Our office takes the position that the Council's action regarding the Mayor is lawful. The City's previous City Attorney, John Calhoun, opined that it was lawful when approved by the City Council in 1997 for three citywide elected officials [City Attorney (at the time, Calhoun), City Prosecutor (at the time, Van Der Laan) and City Auditor (then incumbent, now soon to exit Burroughs)]. This is really no different. There is an element of retroactivity to it but it's not an unlawful retroactivity because it is a retirement benefit."

At the Council's meeting today (June 20), Councilmembers are scheduled to vote on whether to apply the same formula to themselves, which would amount to 400 more hours of sick leave credit for a retiring eight year Councilmember.

In agendizing the "golden handshake" [our term] for Mayor O'Neill, city management didn't state -- and no Councilmember publicly asked -- how much it would cost LB taxpayers. The Council vote to approve it on May 23, 2006 (with Mayor O'Neill absent and Vice Mayor Kell presiding) was 8-0.