PILOT ROCK — When the Pilot Rock City Council needs to confer with an attorney, it will now be able to do so.

Pilot Rock joined several other cities in Eastern Oregon at its city council meeting on Tuesday by renewing its participation in a pilot program from the League of Oregon Cities that provides small, rural cities with 10 hours of free legal advice per year.

The decision was a no-brainer for the council.

“It was approved because it’s 10 free hours of legal advice and we don’t have a city attorney,” Pilot Rock City Recorder Teri Bacus said. “It just saves the city money.”

The program, which began during the 2018-19 fiscal year, was extended until 2021 by the LOC Board of Directors in June. Of the 24 cities that previously participated, LOC general counsel Patty Mulvihill had already received notices of renewal from 15 cities as of Wednesday.

The cities of Umatilla and Athena have already signed onto the program from Umatilla County, while Heppner, Lexington, Ione and Irrigon have signed on from Morrow County.

That list didn’t include Pilot Rock because Mulvihill hadn’t yet received the city’s paperwork following its vote on Tuesday, though she expects others will also be renewing once each city council has had a chance to meet.

As members of the program, cities can receive direct and free legal counsel such as help in drafting ordinances and other general inquiries. However, LOC won’t provide counsel in situations of litigation or possible litigation, employment law advice, or family disputes, which refers to conflicts between city officials.

LOC doesn’t provide employment law advice because Citycounty Insurance Services (CIS), which was formed by LOC and the Association of Oregon Counties, already provides free counsel to cities on employment issues.

Prior to its implementation, LOC already provided what Mulvihill calls “member inquiry service” to all Oregon cities, which means if a city calls asking a question of how to ensure they are properly following a public meeting or other operational law, the LOC sends information that will help them.

In the first year, Pilot Rock used the program three times for a total of 3.5 hours. According to the city council meeting’s agenda, LOC provided counsel on budgeting questions, laws regarding feral cats, and whether an employee could volunteer with the city’s downtown association.

In total, LOC provided 60 hours of free legal counsel to cities in the program’s first year.

While initially offered to all cities in regions 11 and 12, which are defined by the LOC as the areas west of Gilliam, Wheeler, Crook and Lake counties, only cities from these regions with a population of 7,500 or below will be eligible for the next two years.

That eliminates five cities from eligibility — Hermiston, Pendleton, La Grande, Baker City and Ontario.

“Essentially all the cities that weren’t going to use us to begin with,” Mulvihill said.

Mulvihill said the program came about after LOC noticed several smaller cities seeking legal advice without success because they couldn’t afford to employ or contract a full-time city attorney, unlike the region’s larger cities.

With two more years of data for the LOC to collect, Mulvihill said there will be enough to determine whether the program should end, continue as is, or expand to other regions in Oregon.

Along with renewing the LOC program, Pilot Rock City Council approved raising the city’s 11 employees wages by 3%.

The city’s approval was informed by statistics from the U.S. Social Security Administration and the Bureau of Labor that showed cost-of-living in the Pacific region increased 3.1% from May of 2018 to May of this year.