By Clark Natalie

A special meeting of the Harris City Council was called for April 24 to "consider consulting with a temporary attorney to advise the city on the recent arrest and employment matter of a fire department employee."

As it was called for this specific purpose, no other business was conducted.

Mayor Rick Smisson said the reason for the meeting was to make sure there was not a perception of a conflict of interest when using the city's regular attorney in dealing with the Andrew Isaman (a Harris fireman who was arrested for alleged terroristic threats) issue as it moves through the courts.

At the meeting was the attorney the city intended to retain, Joel Jamnik, with Campbell & Knutson law firm. Jamnik had been contacted by City Attorney Pete Grundhoefer to see if he would be willing to serve in this capacity.

Jamnik explained that he has been an attorney since 1983. For 17 years he worked for the League of Minnesota Cities, and for the past 10 years has been in private practice. Eighty percent of their business is with cities. Locally, Jamnik is the attorney for the cities of Braham, Lindstrom and Mora. Campbell & Knutson represent 20 cities and a few townships in Minnesota.

Jamnik will monitor the current prosecution of Isaman as it works its way through the court system. He will also make sure that the city will not violate any open meeting laws, or data practices procedures. It will be a very narrow focus and he will not deal with any other city issues.

Councilman John Pelant asked if Jamnik would have advised different action should have or could have been taken when the situation first arose. Jamnik said that he couldn't advise what different actions could have been taken, as he did not know what information was known as the situation developed.

Jamnik said that in his review of the actions that were taken, all procedures and notices were done properly. Jamnik advised that he could not comment on an open active case, and advised the council not to either and to not make unnecessary public comments.

This included both at City Council meetings and in personal conversations. All future information concerning the case would now go through Jamnik's office.

Pelant then asked what the cost for Jamnik's services would be. The regular rate for his firm is $130/hour. Harris would be charged a flat rate of $250 for a meeting that is under two hours. If the meeting goes over two hours, the regular rate would apply.

Jamnik said that in reviewing the issue, he did not anticipate many meetings and did not expect many, if any, to go over two hours.

Jamnik's next step will be to review all documentation the city has, consult with the Chisago County's attorney and advise the council what comes next.

Pelant wanted to confirm that any correspondence about the issue would be with the council as a whole, and not individual members. Should any talks or documentation be presented to a council member or the mayor, all other councilmembers would be privy to the information.

Jamnik' firm is not affiliated with Jessica Schwiem of Jardine, Logan & Obrien, LLC. Schweim's firm has been hired by the city for the pending lawsuit filed by Kenneth Kabanuk.