Burbank ranks among heavier spenders on attorney fees

Burbank -- which has been entangled in a series of lawsuits over the years -- ranked No. 16 among 88 cities in Los Angeles County for the amount of money spent per capita on attorney fees.

The ranking was one of several findings included in a more than yearlong project by the Los Angeles Times investigating the impact of legal costs on city budgets.

Attorneys’ fees consume less than 1% of the 2010 budgets in nearly half the county’s cities, an average of about $25 per resident. But a handful of cities spend three to four times that much.

Burbank -- which lost a public records lawsuit filed by the Burbank Leader for salary and bonus pay, and which is slogging through a series of police officer discrimination lawsuits -- ranked in the top quarter in per capita spending at $39.

Pasadena and South Pasadena came in at No. 22 and 25, spending $29 and $26 per capita, respectively.

La Canada Flintidge was No. 30, spending $24 per capita. And Glendale ranked lowest in the tri-city region, spending $17 per capita, according to The Times database.

Here is the full list of 88 cities with their average legal expenses for the years 2005 through 2010, expressed as a percentage of the city’s operating and redevelopment budgets and per capita.

L.A. Times Project: Corruption can leave cities with enormous legal bills

L.A. Times Database: Attorney costs by city

-- Jason Wells, Times Community News

Twitter: @JasonBretWells