Loading...
01-20-2004 - Report on Procedure & Impacts on Reviewing Legal Counsel for Various City Services5 City of West Covina Memorandum TO: Andrew G. Pasmant, City Manager and City Council FROM: Artie A. Fields, Assistant City Manager AGENDA ITEM NO. G -1 DATE January 20, 2004 SUBJECT: REPORT ON PROCEDURE AND IMPACTS ON REVIEWING LEGAL COUNSEL FOR VARIOUS CITY SERVICES RECOMMENDATION: City staff recommends that the City Council provide staff direction to staff regarding this matter. DISCUSSION At the December 16, 2003 City Council meeting, Councilmember Roger Hernandez -requested a report on the procedure and implication in reviewing legal counsel services. Currently, the City of West Covina utilizes the legal -services of a variety of firms to represent the City on cases ranging from tort litigation, worker's compensation, redevelopment law, human resource related matters and opinions, and specialized legal representation, such as the ongoing BKK landfill development. Attachment "A" is a list of firms representing the City on a variety of cases and areas of specialty. In addition, the list contains the hourly rates and previous expenditures for services rendered. It should be noted that some of these firms provided services for past legal matters, but no longer represent the City due to a consolidation of litigation issues being handled by the City Attorney's Office. A historical review demonstrates that our current City Attorney has reduced legal costs for some services provided by the prior City Attorney. The most recent change in legal counsel occurred in February 2000, when the City Council instructed, City staff to issue .a Request for Proposals for legal counsel for the City, Redevelopment Agency, and Public Finance Authority to replace the firm of Rutan & Tucker. Proposals were mailed out to firms identified to be qualified to provide legal services for a municipality. In March 2000, the City Council created a Citizen's Review Committee to review the RFPs submitted. The creation of the committee arose from concerns raised regarding the termination process that resulted in the resignation of the previous legal representation and the desire for a fair and honest selection process in the hiring of new legal representation. The Committee's charge was to assist the City Council in selecting a firm to provide legal services by: • Securing the best qualified legal talent for the City; • Making sure the City gets a fair and reasonable cost for services; and • Dispelling any perception that politics were involved in the selection of a new City Attorney and Agency Counsel. The Committee was comprised of five representatives appointed by members of the City Council. The Committee reviewed the submitted RFPs, worked with the Interim City Attorney and Redevelopment Director to formulate questions to be used during the interview process, and, conducted interviews with the firms submitting proposals. The Committee forwarded their recommendation to the City Council, and on July 18, 2000 the West Covina City Council approved the contract with the law firm of Alvarez-Glasman & Colvin to serve as the West Covina City Attorney and provide legal services for the a 0 9 City of West Covina, West Covina Redevelopment Agency, and the West Covina Public Finance Authority. Pursuant to the City Council's direction, Department Heads were queried into the possible implications of making changes to legal counsel. Feedback included: • Going out to RFP may not reduce the legal costs incurred by the City. This is an issue that needs to be seriously evaluated, since some firms may charge a lower initial hourly rate, but charge higher overall rates. For the numerous legal specialization needed for Risk Management related cases, a single RFP would not be cost effective. The City may need to possibly do several RFP's by the type of law specialization needed; • Departments, such as Risk Management, utilizes various specialized attorneys . (i.e. employment law, unsafe conditions of public property, and police investigations) because of an internal analysis done showed it was more cost effective to use specialized attorneys. In addition, the City also has the ability to negotiate a hourly rate at or below the prevailing industry standard if staff is allowed the ability to contact numerous specialized firms; • City could lose the expertise of specialized attorneys who are familiar with the history of legal issues in West Covina (i.e. Colin Lennard — Legal Counsel on the BKK site). This is particularly important since the City has lost much historical reference as a result of prior high turnover of City employees; • Attorney expenses will be incurred while new legal counsel educates themselves on the history of all cases; • Cases currently being litigated, depending on their status, could experience setbacks, or additional costs as new attorneys review the cases (Should the City Council change attorneys, it is recommended that the City Council maintain the current counsel for cases being currently litigated); and • Issues that are difficult to quantify, such as the quality of service and the relationship that is developed between client and attorney. Experience shows that poor relationships and clashes in management styles, can be disruptive to the development of a team attitude and work ethic. A strong team relationship is far more productive and cost effective than a team that has conflict and department input on selection should be considered. The City Council should also consider that City staff does not have any concern with regards to the performance of current general or special legal counsel. In fact, City staff is pleased with the current teams of attorneys. If the City Council wishes to monitor the performance of the different legal counsels, it may be appropriate to institute an annual performance review, similar to that of the City Manager. Staff has also included a survey of comparison cities' attorney fees in Attachment `B". FISCAL IMPACT: The fiscal impact would be dependent on the action of the City Council. Prepared by: Approved by: Chris Freeland Artie A. Fields Administrative Analyst H Assistant City Manager Attachments: Attachment "A" City of West Covina List of Attorneys and Fees Total Cost for Firm/Attorney FY 2003-2004 FY 2002-2003 FY 2001-2002 Attorney/Firm Department Area of Responsibility/Projects Hourly Rate Projected Actual Actual Alvarez-Glasman & Colvin All Monthly Retainer $140-150 $ 81,000 $ 81,000 $ 75,000 All City Legal Counsel 140-150 126,000 153,248 119,613 RDA Agency General Counsel 140-150 130,000 98,163 131,823 Risk Mgmt. Various public entity defense 140-150 101,283 232,175 172,519 All City Attorney Fees (Total) 140-150 438,283 564,586 498,955 Law Offices of Jones & Mayer All City Prosecutor 110 50,350 45,920 50,399 Rutan & Tucker Bill Marticorena Michael Freeman City Manager Cable Franchise Negotiations 180 25,000 40,344 8,168, City Manager Cable Franchise Consultant 185 10,000 4,024 - Liebert Cassidy Whitmore Human Resources Various Personnel -Related Issues; Investigations, FLSA Audit, and other related issues. Varies 99,232 72,551 10,752 Fulbright & Jaworski 170,000 422,731 173,350 'Colin Lennard RDA/Env. Mgmt. BKK/BLD Special Counsel 250 Robert Barnes 335 Oliver, Vose, et al. Connie Sandifer RDA Eminent Domain 175 112,860 155,037 57,960 aw Offices of Steven Skolnik RDA Redevelopment Agency Counsel _ 190 - 4,378 25,070 Goldman, Magdalin & Krikes, B. Derek Straatsma Risk Mgmt. Public entity litigation with emphasis on workers' compensation defense including 132a claims, coverage issues, Serious and Willful claims, subrogation and appellate practice. - 125 1,835 14,182 16,641 Law Offices of Robert J. Gokoo Risk Mgmt. Public entity defense including dangerous condition of public property, design defects, slope failures, personal injury, inverse condemnation, trespass, nuisance and general tort litigation. 150 24,218 12,096 2,832 - Attachment "A" Total Cost for Firm/Attorney FY 2003-2004 FY 2002-2003 FY 2001-2002 Attorney/Firm Department Area of Responsibility/Projects Hourly Projected Actual Actual Rate Mesisca, Riley, Kreitenberg Risk Mgmt. Public entity defense including employment law, 140 134,258 143,875 18,500 workers' compensation, Federal & State anti -fraud actions, personal injury, insurance litigation and real estate litigation Owen & Bradley Risk Mgmt. Public entity defense including police misconduct, civil 130 - 33,608 23,165 rights violations, employment law and appellate practice. oquemore, Pringle & Moore, Risk Mgmt. Liability case 150 43,215 97,712 1,882 Kenneth D. Watase S. Henslee Smith Risk Mgmt. Workers' compensation and subrogation 150 4,203 2,180 - Law Offices of John B. Tharp Risk Mgmt. Workers Compensation 135 1,096 4,444 1,416 Total $ 1,114,549 $ 1,617,667 $ 889,091 * This total does not reflect misc. consultants, settlements, or legal fees incurred during the respective fiscal years. Just represents the majority of legal expenses that were associated with ongoin cases and representation by the various legal firms. 0 Attachment "B" 4 City Attorney Fees West Covina City Attorneys (May 1978 to Current) Firm Attorney Hired Date Retainer Rate (Per hour) Burk, Williams & Sorenson Betsy Mart 5-78 to 10-90 40 Hours at $120/hour $ 160 Rutan & Tucker Betsy Mart 10-90 to 2-00 40 Hours at $120/hour 160 Fulbri ht & Jaworski Colin Lennard (Interim) 2-00 to 7-00 None 195 Alvarez-Glasman & Colvina Arnold Alvarez-Glasman 7-00 to Current 50 Hours at $135/hour 140 - 150 ' Fiscal Year 1998-1999 Fiscal Year 1999-2000 Fiscal Year 2000-2001 Fiscal Year 2001-2002 Fiscal Year 2002-2003 Fiscal Year 2003-2004 (Actual) Actual (Actual) (Actual) (Actual) (Projected) City Attorney Fees $ 250,204 $ 393,613 $ 259,857 $ 326,436 $ 332,411 $ 337,000 * These fees include City general counsel and Redevelopment Agency counsel only. Risk Management related litigation and counsel costs were not included since they fluctuate due do type of case and whether the case went to trial. Firm of Alvarez-Glasman & Colvin began representing the City in August 2000. Survey of City Legal Fees for FY 2003-2004 Fiscal Year 2003-2004 (Budgeted) city Firm Alhambra Burk, Williams & Sorenson $ 2,100,000 Burbank In House 2,179,668 Downey Oliver, Vose & Sanderson 1,300,000 1 Monte In -House 597,000 (1) ullerton Jones & Mayer 951,520 Pasadena In House 4,840,161 West Covina Alvarez-Glasman & Colvin 1,114,549 These fees illustrated above include all City and Redevelopment general and special counsel and risk management related litigation, not just City Attorney budgeted costs. Firm listed is appointed City Attorney's Firm (1) These costs do not include Risk Management related costs.