The City Attorney's Office provides legal advice to the CityCommission, the CityManager and City departments, and prosecutes municipal offences. The office is in Room 101 of the CivicCenter.
David Dennis is City Attorney; Rachel Taylor is Deputy City Attorney. Both appear regularly in the Commission minutes, one of them present at essentially every meeting. Dennis served as Acting City Manager in May 2026 — see CityCommission2026-05-19.
The office drafts the ordinances and resolutions the Commission votes on, and presents the legal background at public hearings on matters like the fireworks referral — see Ordinance3278 and FireworksReferendum2025 — and the nuisance abatement process, which the office walked the Commission through at CityCommission2025-06-17. Executive sessions on litigation are held with the City Attorney present; see SpecialWorkSession2026-03-16.
The office also publishes the City's legal opinion on conflicts for board, council and commission members, which is linked from the BoardsAndCommissions pages.
Legal: https://greatfallsmt.gov/290/Legal Conflicts opinion: https://greatfallsmt.gov/460/Legal-Opinion-Regarding-Board-Council-an