The mayor has not dropped the lawsuits, leaving them open for a possible appeal to the state Supreme Court, which City Council members say is another reason for cushion in the budget for legal costs.

"For all those reasons, setting money aside for that is a wise thing to do," Councilwoman Martha Speed said. "You don't want to be caught unawares and not have money in the kitty for that."

That's what happened last year in Bluffdale. The city had budgeted a little more than $158,000 for attorneys' fees but ended up spending nearly $273,000 on legal costs, according to city financial records obtained by a request under the Government Records and Access Management Act.

"Last year we got caught short and had to go find some money," Maxwell said. "We don't want to do that again this year."

The City Council is attempting to curb legal costs by bringing in a full-time in-house attorney. The city has advertised for the position, and the interviewing process is expected to get under way this week.

Mapleton, which has allocated $155,000 for attorney costs for this fiscal year, ranked second in the amount budgeted among the dozen cities that responded to the Deseret Morning News' records requests. Attempts were made to collect data from all 21 cities of comparable size to Bluffdale.

In Mapleton's case, city administrator Bob Bradshaw said the $155,000 budgeted for attorneys' fees is "unusually high," but has been the norm in recent years.

A five-year land-use battle between the city and landowner Wendell Gibby, which was settled last month, cost the city nearly $600,000 in legal fees. The recent legal fight with the Ensign-Bickford explosives plant over alleged water contamination also boosted the city's legal costs.

"For our city, $75,000 (budgeted for attorneys' fees) is about right," Bradshaw said, adding that Mapleton also is looking into hiring an in-house attorney.

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E-mail: jpage@desnews.com