DOVER, DE- Two Dover City Council members are raising concerns about City Solicitor Nicholas H. Rodriguez, questioning his role in representing all cases involving the city and highlighting a sharp increase in legal fees.
Councilmen Brian Lewis and Roy Sudler started voicing concerns about Nicholas H. Rodriguez, the Dover City Solicitor, after reviewing the city’s legal bills for fiscal year 2023-2024.
Councilman Brian Lewis stated that this year’s legal budget was significantly higher than in previous years, totaling nearly three times more than what was originally allocated.
“Our legal bills for fiscal year 2023-2024 were over $300,000, which is concerning. This affects our citizens, as taxpayer dollars are being spent.”
Councilman Roy Sudler says that according to the city's charter, the city solicitor is responsible for defending and prosecuting all cases and lawsuits involving Dover.
“The city solicitor is responsible under Article 5, Section 54 for defending and prosecuting all of the cases and lawsuits for the City of Dover and those that the City of Dover is party to.”
According to Sudler and Lewis, the increase in legal costs is due to Rodriguez subcontracting cases to outside law firms instead of handling them directly.
Lewis expressed concerns, questioning why Rodriguez would need to subcontract cases to other law firms when his role as city solicitor is to represent all legal matters for Dover.
“Why are we contracting out? We have an attorney. He’s supposed to handle everything.”
Roy Sudler agrees with Brian Lewis and argues that the frequent outsourcing of legal work has strained the city’s budget and burdened constituents.
“Based on the fact that our budget is stressed this fiscal year, we had to get creative and raise costs for our electric and utility bills.”
Nicholas Rodriguez, however, defended the practice of subcontracting cases, stating that it has been a long-standing approach.
“They don’t charge an enormous amount, but they do charge more than they pay me. It’s got to be done. There’s no other way.”
Rodriguez also pushed back against the idea that legal fees were the primary cause of the city’s budget issues.
“I don’t think legal fees are the problem. The legal fees, in my opinion, are no more than they’ve been in the past. Everything else has increased, so we’re likely caught in the same financial trap as in recent years.”
Sudler also raised concerns about a potential conflict of interest, noting that one of the law firms Rodriguez subcontracted has a pending lawsuit against the City of Dover.
“Why would we be using someone who has a lawsuit against the city? That’s going to cost our taxpayers some financial hardship.”
Rodriguez responded by telling WBOC that he was unaware of any conflict but expressed confidence that the lawyer handling the case would not have taken it if a conflict of interest truly existed.
“I’m sure any attorney who takes a case from the City of Dover would consider a potential conflict. I imagine there may be one attorney at that firm with something to do with the city, but I wouldn’t consider that a conflict.”
Rodriguez said this was the first time he had heard these concerns from Sudler and Lewis and expressed surprise that they had not approached him directly.
“If they had any complaints about me, they could have come to me, but they didn’t. I had no idea they went to the press, and I have no idea why. This is a council problem.”
Tensions between Councilmen Sudler and Lewis and City Solicitor Rodriguez are mounting, as concerns over legal fees and potential conflicts of interest grow.
