Photo: City of Penticton

The City of Penticton's legal costs hit about $450,000 in 2016, according to data obtained by Castanet.

Pockets of information on legal costs have been published in the 2017 budget for the city, while the remainder of the data was obtained through a freedom of information request, which detailed costs broken down into three departments over four years.

Over half of the $448,420 in legal costs came from insurance claims, settlements and public liability, at $254,380. 

That includes the "preparation and settlement of legal claims and defence against all claims, regardless of merit."

That would include incidents on city property and lawsuits "which include legitimate and frivolous claims."

While that cost was just over half of the same costs the year prior, it dwarfed 2013's and 2014's numbers, which hovered around $40,000. The budget for 2017 currently projects $120,000 for that same category.

Last year, the city was faced with at least two major lawsuits, both over the previously proposed Skaha Lake Park waterslide in 2016 – one of which has not gone away, while the other was dropped.

Analysis of the city's insurance claims by its carrier, the Municipal Insurance Association of British Columbia, indicates that those claims are about on par with other cities within the 25,000 to 50,000 population range.

“When considering the average claims cost per capita over the last five years, Penticton ranks 38th out of 125 local governments who are Municipal Insurance Association of BC members," the Municipal Insurance Association said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the costs of collective bargaining and legal labour advice are on at least a four-year low, forecast to be about $24,000 last year.

Finally, corporate administration, engineering and development made up a sizeable chunk, though hitting about average for the four years, at about $176,500 – the same amount budgeted for next year.

That cost goes toward legal advice, document preparation and review on contracts, legal covenants, rights of way and bylaws.

Next year's budget is set for considerably lower legal costs altogether, at about $306,500.