While I've written several comments here supporting Tim (and against this atrociously written article), I agree completely. 
As a Langley resident I'm happy to foot the $60 to talk with the press. 
I know from Tim's statement that the original bill was a surprise:
"the city treasurer, received an invoice for the time the Attorney spent with the reporter... She has been working in the city for 24 years, and said in all this time, the city has never been invoiced by an attorney for work hired by an outside company – newspaper or not."