By Kathryn Reed

A complete accounting of how much money has been spent by the taxpayers of South Lake Tahoe per City Council direction to keep Johnny Poland from being on the police force has not been provided to Lake Tahoe News.

By the end of the business day Friday, the city provided attorney Cynthia O’Neill’s bill regarding the recent litigation in El Dorado County Superior Court: her 159.1 hours equate to $34,101; plus an

Johnny Poland

additional $1,030.18 in costs.

In April, this reporter was told $75,000 had been spent by the city at that time on the Poland case. It was the understanding that was on legal fees paid to outside counsel.

However, the city has not provided any news outlet in town with the number of hours worked on the case by staff, what the dollar figure is for that time or how much money Poland was paid to not work for nearly 2.5 years, or the cost of benefits he received while on leave.

“The dollar cost of City staff time is not known at this time. (Police) Chief (Terry) Daniels is out of the office today and he may have a staff time estimate,” City Manager Dave Jinkens wrote in an Oct. 30 email.

Jinkens wants a plan in place next week for handling Poland’s return to the department.

Superior Court Judge Steve Bailey ruled this week against the city’s appeal of the arbitration panel’s decision to reinstate Poland. Poland was fired by Daniels in June 2007 because of his actions during a lockdown at South Tahoe High School in November 2006.