The Fairmont City Council is in the process of shopping for a new City Attorney and are eyeing two law firms to potentially take over legal services for the City of Fairmont.
In April of 2019, the Council voted to end employment with Elizabeth Bloomquist, its inhouse attorney for the past three decades. Afterward, the City used interim services until the spring of 2020, when it contracted with current City Attorney, Mark Rahrick with law firm Smith Tollefson, Rahrick & Cass, a general practice law firm, based out of Owatonna.
City Administrator Cathy Reynolds said that while there haven’t been any specific complaints about the current law firm, the council is interested in see if there are other options out there. The firms interviewed during the Council’s Wednesday meeting were Flaherty & Hood, of St. Paul and Kennedy & Graven, also based out of the Twin Cities area.
Following the interviews, the Council filled out individual rating forms and had a brief discussion of their impressions. The hope is to decide in the next few days whether to continue with the current firm or to contract with one of the new firms.