BELFAST — The city’s legal fees in the Robert Temple case are more than $26,000 and climbing.

City Manager Terry St. Peter said Tuesday that the four law firms involved in the case have filed bills to date totaling $26,456. St. Peter said he expected the city’s insurance company to pay a portion. That amount still needs to be negotiated, he said.

“We’ll be turning the bills over to the insurance company soon,” he said.

Temple, the city’s code enforcement officer, filed a federal civil rights suit against the city following a protracted and public review of his job performance that concluded this spring. Besides the city government, also named in the suit were city Councilors Jon Cheston and Michael Lewis and city Assessor Robert Whiteley.

Although the case was eventually thrown out of court, four law firms were retained to represent the four city entities named in the lawsuit. And, while he failed to win his case in U.S. District Court at Bangor, Temple has indicated his intention to pursue the civil suit in state court. That claim has yet to be filed.

Because the case has the potential to continue, St. Peter said he expected additional legal services would be necessary. He noted that the city’s attorney on the case, Lee Bragg of the Augusta firm of Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson, will remain on retainer until the Temple matter is resolved.

“We remain in dialogue with Lee Bragg because Temple has said he is going to file again,” St. Peter said.

With Bragg having taken the lead in the case, St. Peter said the involvement of the firms representing Cheston, Lewis and Whiteley was “down to a walk as opposed to a trot.”

The investigation into Temple’s job performance grew out of a similar probe into the actions of former city manager Arlo Redman. Redman became involved in developing income property during his period in city hall’s corner office and questions were raised about some of Temple’s rulings on code and zoning issues pertaining to his boss’s projects.

Redman resigned as city manager in November 1997 after the council agreed to a $65,000 severance package. The council then focused its attention on Temple. Bangor attorney Robert Miller was retained to look into Temple’s job performance, and recommended his dismissal. Although Temple managed to save his job by a 3-2 vote of the council, Miller’s work ended up costing the city $14,000.

Councilor Walter Ash was one of the three panel members who voted to allow Temple to continue on the job. When informed Tuesday that the Redman-Temple affair had already cost the city upwards of $105,000, Ash predicted the total would be much more before the entire business was wrapped up.

“It will cost us $160,000 before we’re through,” Ash predicted. “You can count on it.”

Besides the money paid by the city to Redman and attorney Miller, the year-to-date breakdown on the fees for others involved with the case is as follows: the city’s attorney Bragg, $12,996; Cheston’s attorney William Devoe of the Bangor firm Eaton, Peabody, Bradford and Veague, $7,127; Lewis’ attorney Michael Duddy of the Bangor firm Kozak, Gayer and Brodek, $5,903; and Whiteley’s attorney Marvin Glazier of the Bangor firm Vafiades, Brountas and Kominsky, $429.

Whatever the final outcome, it appears the city has more than enough cash on hand to cover the cost of its legal bills. According to a review of fiscal year 1998, which ended on June 30, auditors C.H. Dorr & Co. found the city “is in a very healthy financial situation,” St. Peter reported.

St. Peter said the auditors put the surplus balance at the end of the year at $3.7 million, an increase of $332,000 over the year before. “That represents just under 4 percent of total revenues, which is a pretty fair figure,” St. Peter noted. “Much over 5 percent might be considered excessive; one to five is a good margin. I must commend the treasurer’s office and department heads for their good budget and fiscal management.”

St. Peter emphasized that the $3.7 million surplus will be reduced in the coming year by $1.5 million for new equipment, expansion of the Belfast Free Library and the proposed Waldo County YMCA. The manager indicated that he planned a further dip into the surplus in the city’s 1999-2000 budget.

“We do anticipate next year’s budget will employ some funds from the undesignated fund balance, hopefully for capital projects and expenditures that will avoid or mitigate a tax increase without building any false long-term reliance.”