Big prize for Sen. Clayborne

So this lawyer dies and upon arrival at the pearly gates, St. Peter rushes to greet him: “Congratulations, Sen. Clayborne! You win the prize for the human who lived the longest.”

Sen. Clayborne replies, “There must be some mistake? I was only 78 when my ex-girlfriend backed over me.”

St. Peter: “No, Sen. Clayborne. I added up all your billable hours. By my calculation you were 257!”

Too bad the joke’s really on taxpayers in general and East St. Louis specifically.

Illinois Sen. James Clayborne and his new firm, Clayborne, Sabo and Wagner, billed East St. Louis $778,039 in 2014. That represented a 50 percent boost from when Clayborne’s old firm, Hinshaw and Culbertson, represented the city for $512,500 in 2012.

All told lawyers last year cost East St. Louis $902,450 — nearly double Belleville’s legal bill, even with an extra $134,000 spent fighting the St. Elizabeth’s Hospital move to O’Fallon.

Shameless or clueless, we’re not sure, but it strikes us as unethical and we think it should be illegal for the Illinois Senate majority leader to position himself as a contractor for a city he represents. The subjective nature of legal bills makes them hard to challenge, especially when the client is dependent upon an individual both for access to state funds as well as for protection from legal liability.

East St. Louis has learned some hard lessons about legal costs: From Walter DeBow owning City Hall after he sued for being beaten in the city jail to paying millions for the old Alcoa site when that legal nightmare unraveled. The city certainly needs a good lawyer.

But there is no shortage of lawyers in St. Clair County. We hope East St. Louis Mayor Emeka Jackson-Hicks takes a hard look at Clayborne’s past bills and whether continuing his contract is really in the city’s best interests.

This story was originally published July 6, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Big prize for Sen. Clayborne."