ROANOKE RAPIDS - City officials have hired a Raleigh law firm to represent Roanoke Rapids in the dispute with Randy Parton over the theater he was contracted to run.

After a closed session Tuesday night, the City Council referred questions about possible legal action to lawyer Johnny M. Loper of Raleigh with the firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice.

Loper would not say Tuesday whether the city was seeking to end its relationship with Parton. He said he needs to review documents before helping the city determine who runs the theater and how it is run.

A spokesman for the company now managing the theater said city officials had advised his company to proceed with Parton out of the operation.

"My goal is to help the city resolve this issue," Loper said.

Earlier Tuesday, country music legend Dolly Parton spoke out in support of her brother.

"No one can dispute the fact the show he put together for the theater was top of the line. I know in my heart that Randy gave it his best effort," she said. "Unfortunately, now that things aren't working as well as everyone had hoped, everyone is pointing fingers, and naturally no one wants to take the blame. It is not fair making Randy the scapegoat for a project where so much and so many were involved."

The city last month renegotiated its contract with Randy Parton, cutting his salary from $750,000 to $250,000 and limiting him to 36 appearances a year. It also hired a new management firm, UGL Unicco, to operate the theater on Interstate 95.

Jim Craig, the company's senior director of business developments, told the council that attendance at the theater had improved in the past month with about 4,100 customers. He said the new management is bringing in a variety of performers with different types of music including country, gospel and rock.

He said the new management hopes to book about 200 shows a year and attract at least 1,000 people a show.

Also Tuesday, Carolina Journal reported that the former president of a state-financed economic development partnership that recruited the Partons to Roanoke Rapids had an ownership stake in the Partons' company, Moonlight Bandit Productions.

Rick Watson paid an "initial capital contribution" of $100 for a one-third stake in the company, according to an operating agreement for the company that Carolina Journal obtained. The document shows that Watson and seven others were listed as members of the company, with Randy and Deb Parton having a 57 percent stake.

It is unclear whether Watson had a stake in the company in mid-2005, when Parton struck a deal with Roanoke Rapids to manage the theater. The operating agreement was signed March 2, 2006. Later that month, Watson resigned from the Northeastern North Carolina Regional Economic Development Commission and its marketing arm, North Carolina's Northeast Partnership.

The commission's board sought Watson's resignation after he told them he planned to work for Parton.

Moonlight Bandit Productions was formed in early 2005, according to filings with the state. Three subsidiaries that handle merchandise, concessions and property were created roughly six months later.

Annual reports filed with the state in April 2006 list Watson as a member of all four companies. He could not be reached for comment.

Three others listed as lesser stakeholders in the company have ties to the partnership, including its former attorney, Ernie Pearson of Cary.