Alton Attorney Takes Legal Action Against City Over Billing Requirements

ALTON – An attorney for the City of Alton is asking a Madison County court to prohibit the City Council from requiring the disclosure of certain billing information.

Rodney Caffey, who operates the Caffey Law Firm LLC and provides legal services to the City of Alton, filed an Emergency Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction against the Alton City Council on March 6, 2026.

In his emergency motion, Caffey asks the court to prohibit the City Council from implementing or enforcing any ordinance, resolution, or policy that would impose a minimum billing requirement on Caffey or similar independent contractors for the city.

This comes after Alderman Michael Velloff referred an ordinance establishing minimum billing requirements for legal services provided to the City of Alton to the Committee of the Whole for their March 9, 2026 meeting, when the item was postponed after Committee members went into executive session to discuss matters of pertinent litigation.

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The proposed ordinance calls for all invoices for legal services provided to the city to include certain “minimum required billing information,” including the dates services were rendered, amount of time for each service entry, applicable billing rate, total amounts charged for each entry and total amount due for the invoice, the name of the case, entity, or person involved with each service entry, and a general description of the task performed. Exceptions would apply to attorney-client privileged communications and confidential legal strategies.

Under the proposed ordinance, no payment for legal services would be approved unless the invoice for those services “substantially complies” with the requirements listed in the ordinance. The ordinance states that the establishment of these requirements is a “prospective risk-management measure intended to strengthen transparency, compliance, and fiscal oversight, and is not intended to question the professionalism, integrity, or performance of any legal counsel.”

In his motion, Caffey argues the proposed requirements would be an “unlawful exercise of control inconsistent with [Caffey’s] independent contractor status” which breaches his long-standing working agreement with the city. Caffey further states that while he provides legal services to the city, he has never entered into an employee-employer relationship with the city. Therefore, Caffey states he has “consistently maintained sole discretion and control over the manner and means of performing legal services” for the city.

“Such a minimum billing requirement attempts to constitute control over the manner and means of work performance by an independent contractor,” the motion states, adding the requirement “also violates ethical rules.”

Caffey’s motion further states that he has provided these legal services to the city without a minimum billing requirement since 2016 and has submitted monthly invoices for legal services performed since 2021 to the satisfaction of Alton Mayor David Goins and the City Council, who approved all prior invoices.

A hearing on Caffey’s request for a preliminary injunction prohibiting the City Council from enforcing the proposed ordinance is scheduled for Thursday, March 12 at 1 p.m. Stay tuned to Riverbender.com as the situation develops.

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