BATON ROUGE - East Baton Rouge Parish Attorney Gregory Rome pled his case to the Metro Council on Thursday to find more funding for his department.

As part of the cuts, the parish attorney's office could lose between eight and sixteen lawyers. Council members suggested possibly offsetting costs with fees collected by the parish attorney's office.

"I've watched y'all, and I hope nobody takes offense to this, bend over backwards to help the DA find money, and he's one of my best friends. I understand you have to help constitutional offices, but I'm your parish attorney, y'all need to help me find some money, y'all really do."

There was also a discussion of attorneys that work directly with other departments, such as BRPD and city court, providing funding for those legal advisors. Rome told council members he wants to make sure they preserve that quality of the legal service.

"Let me tell you what can't suffer, this absolutely can't suffer because all the people here have an ethical obligation. The quality of legal advice it cannot suffer. We have an ethical obligation. We cannot allow that to suffer."

The Metro Council will hear from the Department of Public Works at the next budget meeting Monday at 5 p.m.