Wednesday, city officials were talking about planting fewer flowers in city parks and cutting routes from the T to make ends meet.

Thursday, they said they would pony up nearly $10,000 for the first month of legal bills for defending lawsuits related to the city’s denial of building permits for a Wal-Mart store.

That figure doesn’t include the $20,000 a year the city pays to keep attorney Gerald Cooley’s firm, Gilliland and Hayes, on retainer. He bills the city for legal work at $100 an hour.

And the lawsuit is just getting started.

The city released the first-month tab — the exact figure was $9,812 — Thursday at the request of the Journal-World.

Mayor David Dunfield declined to comment on the cost. Commissioner Boog Highberger defended the price tag.

“I’d prefer we not have to spend anything,” he said. “But we didn’t file the lawsuit.”

6Wak Land Investments LLC, owner of the land at Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive where Wal-Mart wants to build, filed suit against the city in late May. The company is a partnership of Lawrence developers Doug Compton and Bill Newsome.

Wal-Mart filed its own suit in the case last month.

¢See past Wal-Mart stories

The suits contest the city’s decision to deny permits to build on the site. That denial came after the Lawrence City Commission put a moratorium on building there after developers applied for the building permit. The city approved the moratorium as a means of buying time for a city code clarification that Wal-Mart is a “department store” prohibited from the site.

When the moratorium was approved, 6Wak and Wal-Mart’s attorneys warned commissioners litigation would be costly.

“The cost of litigating this matter over an extended period of time is not going to be fun for anybody,” 6Wak attorney Jim Bowers Jr. said at a May commission meeting.

The bill covers work done from May 14 to June 18. The lawsuit was filed May 27.

But officials said Thursday that, despite ongoing budget woes, the city could afford the legal bills. The money will come from a $1.2 million “liability reserve fund” the city keeps on hand for just such occasions.

“There’s sufficient funds to pay the costs,” City Manager Mike Wildgen said.

Wildgen said the city’s average monthly legal bill was between $5,000 and $6,000. The overall May/June bill of $15,625 included work Cooley’s firm did on city workers’ compensation claims, as well as defending lawsuits filed by the city’s police sergeants and relatives of a Bowersock Dam drowning victim.

“It’s not uncommon for the city to defend certain issues,” Assistant City Manager Dave Corliss said.

Highberger was philosophical.

“I think it’s unfortunate, but litigation is a cost of doing business in the modern world,” he said. “As a city commissioner, I’ll continue to do what I think is best for the city, regardless of any threat of litigation.”

The next hearing in the lawsuit is July 17.