Traverse City commissioners will consider hiring outside legal counsel to represent the city in a lawsuit filed by developer Tom McIntyre over Proposal 3.

City staff are asking commissioners to add the lawsuit as a last-minute agenda item tonight (Monday) because of the time-sensitive nature of the court case. McIntyre is seeking to have Proposal 3 - the city charter amendment requiring a public vote on any buildings over 60 feet high - declared illegal in Thirteenth Circuit Court. In a memo from City Attorney Lauren Trible-Laucht, she noted the city owes a response to McIntyre's lawsuit by January 2. Because of the holidays, the city requested an extension on that deadline, but McIntyre's attorneys are opposed to granting one. Trible-Laucht said that given her workload, and also her past public statements indicating she believes Proposal 3 is illegal, she should recuse herself from the case.

Trible-Laucht says she contacted attorney Doug Van Essen, who acted as outside counsel for the city in previous Proposal 3 legal proceedings, to see if he could quickly come on to handle the case. Van Essen has agreed and has said he will "cap his fees at $10,000 through any Court of Appeals process," Trible-Laucht wrote. "If the commission does not wish to retain Mr. Van Essen, I would suggest that one of the larger firms such as Miller Canfield or Plunkett Cooney should be contacted, as they would have the capacity to ramp up and become familiar with the case within the necessary deadline."

Trible-Laucht also wrote that she expects Save Our Downtown (SOD), the Traverse City citizen group that helped passed Proposal 3, to file paperwork asking the courts for permission to intervene in the case and help defend the charter amendment. SOD has intervened in past lawsuits, and Trible-Laucht told commissioners she believes the city should not attempt to block the group from doing so again.

Traverse City commissioners will meet at 7pm tonight at the Governmental Center.