Durango City Council is holding an executive session Tuesday to discuss the resignation of interim city attorney Tony Maestes, which was announced in a news release from the city on Monday.

The interim attorney requested that his resignation be effective Jan. 9, the release says.

“The job that I accepted was to learn municipal law under Dirk (Nelson) as the assistant city attorney,” Maestes says in the release. “The immediate promotion to city attorney, combined with the additional day-to-day responsibilities, allowed me to realize municipal law was not the area of law I want to focus on in my next decade of practicing law.”

Dirk Nelson, the former city attorney, suddenly announced his immediate resignation on Oct. 19 without further explanation.

Tom Sluis, spokesman for the city, said City Council is responsible for hiring a city attorney and will likely seek contractual help from a third party entity, which will be explored during the Tuesday meeting.

After another executive session for an annual evaluation of the city attorney (Maestes serving as the interim) on Dec. 12, Councilor Kim Baxter said a new city attorney won’t be hired until perhaps April.

She said in the meantime, Maestes needs support with the city’s “huge” legal workload and pointed out that the only paralegal administrative assistant works part-time.

After the Dec. 12 executive session, City Council voted 4-0 to contract an experienced municipal attorney to assist Maestes. Councilor Jessika Buell abstained from voting because she didn’t attend that day’s executive session on the subject.

The interim city attorney said after the Dec. 12 meeting that the city needs more legal help “immediately.”

Mayor Barbara Noseworthy said the city attorney’s position requires “a great deal of insight to recognize” needed legal experience and when to ask for additional help.

On Friday, she said Maestes needs help to properly do his job. The executive session planned for Tuesday is to determine how to proceed given his resignation.

“I think that’s a real mark of someone understanding and putting the city’s legal issues at the forefront,” she said. “I want to make very clear that (I) understand your self-evaluation and your recommendations.”

Councilor Melissa Youssef said she supports Maestes and his openness to ask for assistance.

In November, City Council contracted BakerTilly, a countrywide government employment firm, to seek a permanent replacement for the city attorney job. The job is planned to be posted in January with hopes for a hire by March, the city’s release says.

“The same process is underway as before Tony’s announcement, which was that the city is going to move forward with finding a permanent city attorney,” Sluis said.

In the meantime, the city will probably consider contract work to bridge the gap between Maestes’ departure and a new permanent hire, he said.

After the Dec. 12 executive session, Councilor Olivier Bosmans said he was concerned that discussion ventured out of the realm of evaluating Maestes and into the territory of more general city legal department affairs.

Maestes said the discussion was related to his ability to do his job effectively and the executive session stayed on the planned and announced subject matter.

“I think some of the concern was that my suggestion to City Council was that we need more legal help immediately,” he said. “And I think that speaks to my performance and my ability to perform, well, running the city attorney’s office. In my opinion, we stuck to the noticed agenda.”

cburney@durangoherald.com