Local Government

Thorp Purdy has a long history of providing general counsel and special counsel services to Oregon’s public entities. To us, that means having a team of experienced local government attorneys available when you need us. Our experienced team of local government attorneys helps our clients find practical and cost-effective solutions to complicated problems.

We have experience with a wide-range of issues and provide regular advice to our local government clients regarding:

Public records and public meetings law
Public contracting, including drafting, bid protests and contracting disputes
Government ethics
Drafting of resolutions and ordinances
Property issues, including negotiations, drafting and review of contracts and lease agreements
Property and development issues, including environmental compliance, Brownfields, and hazardous waste
General advice regarding employment law, personnel matters, and employee policies
Elections law, including ballot titles and bond measures
Short-term borrowing
Assistance and general advice regarding federal funding and federal agencies
Civil rights issues
Risk management
Litigation regarding various issues

Public Contracting
- Oregon’s public contracting laws are complex. Our team of experienced local government attorneys regularly assists our local government clients with a wide-range of public contracting issues. We assist in the drafting and review of Requests for Proposals and Invitations to Bid. Our team has experience with traditional procurements, sole source procurements, direct appointments, energy savings performance procurements, joint cooperative procurements and other specialized public contracting issues. We assist our local government clients with all phases of public contracting, including bid protests, contract negotiations, drafting disputes, and litigation. Representative public contracting projects include:
  - Athletic Field Complex Construction ($5 million)
  - Joint Cooperative Procurement of a snow removal machine – City of Redmond ($750,000)
  - Energy Savings Performance Contract Efficiency Upgrades ($200,000)
  - Complex Capital Improvement Projects (over $200 million)
  - Tertiary Filtration Contract ($5.8 million)
  - Master Landscaping Contract ($1.4 million)

Real Property
- Our team of local government law attorneys assist our clients with a wide-range of real property and land use issues. We assist our local government clients with complex purchase and sale agreements and lease agreements, including negotiations and contract drafting. These deals tend to involve a host of related issues. Our team of experienced local government attorneys can provide practical advice for complex deals.
  
  We also assist our local government clients with a wide-range of environmental compliance issues, including Brownfields and hazardous waste.
  
  We also have experience with land use development issues, including planning, compliance, redevelopment and litigation. We also assist our local government clients on various other real estate matters, including condemnation proceedings and litigation. Representative land use law and real property projects include:
  - Represented clients before local government governing bodies and in circuit court regarding various land use matters.
  - Negotiated $8.1 million property acquisition of over 700 acres of property from multiple landowners.
  - Negotiated $1.2 million property acquisition for a new school site.
  - Negotiated a contract with The Freshwater Trust to establish riparian restoration areas in order to obtain shade credits.