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South Salt Lake • The city council is moving ahead on a plan to hire its own attorney in a rift with the administration apparently sparked by the longrunning battle over the old Granite High School property.

"There have been situations that we realized there has been a strong conflict with the city attorney and the mayor," Councilman Shane Siwik said.

Councilman Ben Pender also expressed concern that City Attorney Lyn Creswell serves at the pleasure of the mayor and may not be representing the interests of the council.

No specifics were given during a council work session this week, but members agreed to form a committee to pare down the current list of 10 applicants to provide the council with legal advice.

The catalyst for the move appears to be disagreement over the old Granite High. Mayor Cherie Wood in March vetoed a council-backed plan for a development of 78 single-family homes, and a retail center anchored by a Wal-Mart grocery store on the property near 3300 South and 500 East.

The council in a March 21 meeting couldn't muster the required five votes to override the veto despite a last-minute pitch by Garbett Homes and Wasatch Properties, whose $10.6 million contract with Granite School District expired that same week.

In a closed-door meeting two days later, on March 23, the council told Creswell that it no longer wanted his legal advice and it later voted in a public meeting 4-3 to begin searching for its own attorney.

Wood expressed surprise at the council's stance, saying "the city has functioned without the council having their own lawyer for decades."

Creswell said he has not been advising the council for a couple of months because of its request, but he encouraged it to engage an attorney with land-use experience as that is the issue most likely to require legal expertise.

It's unclear how much a contract counsel will cost the city — an expense that would depend on the amount of work to be performed.