Airport Legal Costs Skyrocketing : Finances: Commissioner charges $3 million in payments to attorneys in five years is out of control. Burbank councilman demands a full-scale audit.

Legal costs are out of control at Burbank Airport, with three law firms collecting $1 million each over the past five years, Commissioner Philip E. Berlin charged Tuesday.

In a letter to airport Executive Director Tom Greer, Berlin said the airport authority “must gain control over the legal costs and work assignments” carried out by the law firms it employs.

One in particular, Dolle & Dolle, had been billing the airport “obscene” rates in addition to doing work outside its speciality of land use and eminent domain, Berlin said. The West Los Angeles firm, which was hired by the airport authority in 1991, employs Thomas Garcin, son of Glendale Airport Commissioner Robert Garcin.

Berlin said invoices provided by Dios Marrero, the airport authority’s chief financial officer, showed that Thomas Garcin and Hodge Dolle, president and owner of Dolle & Dolle, charged the airport for research on the “Burbank City Council’s attitude toward the airport,” for reading newspaper articles about the airport, and for research into the joint powers agreement by which Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena share direction of the airport, which serves close to 5 million passengers each year.

At the Burbank City Council meeting late Tuesday, the letter prompted Councilman Ted McConkey to call for a full-scale audit of the airport authority’s financial practices. “We have the right to be assured that public money is being spent in a responsible and legal way,” he said. The council is expected to consider his request at its meeting next week.

Earlier in the day, Berlin said in an interview: “This is an insult to Burbank. I was told no work had been assigned to these issues and this shows the exact opposite was the case.”

Dolle said his firm has never researched the city of Burbank’s conduct or attitude in regard to the Joint Powers Agreement, nor has it charged for such research.

“I don’t have any way of researching attitudes,” he said in response to Berlin’s letter. “I don’t know what he’s talking about there.”

However, Dolle said that all three attorneys in his firm have reviewed minutes of airport authority meetings and newspaper articles regarding the authority “to save the client money” instead of billing them for attending airport authority meetings.

Thomas Garcin charges $190 an hour and Dolle charges $275 an hour for their services, according to Berlin. Their law firm billed a total of $929,518.57 to the Authority over five years.

Greer refused to comment on Berlin’s letter or the issues raised concerning legal fees. “The questions posed by Commissioner Berlin are intended for his colleagues on the commission,” Greer said in a written statement. “Further discussion will have to await the appropriate forum.”

Burbank officials have been at odds with the airport in the last year over proposed airport expansion and noise controls around the facility. Commission meetings for the past several months have been laced with acrimonious exchanges between some commissioners, including Berlin and Robert Garcin, both of whom serve on the authority’s legal committee.

Robert Garcin said he would not comment on Berlin’s accusations.

“I have no confidence in what Mr. Berlin does, or says or writes,” he said of Berlin’s letter.

Robert Garcin was a member of the legal committee when Dolle & Dolle was retained, but he said he did not recommend the firm to airport authority members. In fact, Robert Garcin said, he told commissioners his son worked for Dolle & Dolle.

“I abstained from voting at both meetings,” he said, referring to the legal committee and general airport authority meetings.

Two other law firms retained by the authority are McDermott, Will & Emery, which specializes in litigation, and Quinn, Kully & Morrow, which specializes in real estate and contracts. Berlin charged that those two firms were duplicating research already conducted by Dolle & Dolle for the authority on the joint powers agreement and the Memorandum of Cooperation, a statement of cooperation between Burbank and the airport authority.

McDermott, Will and Emery charged the Authority $1,452,162 over the last five years, and Quinn, Kully & Morrow billed them $1,233,784, according to Berlin.

Berlin asked Greer to place the authority’s legal bills on the agenda for the Airport Authority meeting on Nov. 2.