City of Brookings to pay more than $400k for church's legal fees

BROOKINGS, Ore. – The city of Brookings will pay more than $400k in legal fees as part of a settlement following a long running dispute with a local church over feeding the homeless.

Brookings mayor and city council approved the settlement this week, with roughly $375,000 going to Portland law firm Stoel Rives, and $43,000 to the Oregon Justice Resource Center.

Back in March, a federal judge in Medford strongly sided with St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Brookings, after the city attempted to limit the amount of days the congregation could operate a soup kitchen in its residential neighborhood.

The church’s leadership is still eager to work with the city to help those in need, despite what it’s leadership called some hurtful comments this week from city councilors.

“What we want to do is be able to have an opportunity, now that this lawsuit’s over with, be able to sit down and have a conversation with all of the various different stakeholders” Father Bernie Lindley told NBC 5 News. “…figure how to move forward in a way that everybody can live with.”

We wanted to do that in the first place, but the city threw an ordinance on us instead of a conversation and then we ended up where we are now.

Despite opposition, the church never stopped operating its soup kitchen.

In his ruling back in March, Federal Judge Mark D. Clark wrote that the city should consider itself fortunate to have father Lindley and his congregation as compassionate, caring, and committed members of the community.