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Home My WebLink About14 - Staffing Changes in the City Attorney's OfficeCITY OF NEWPORT BEACH CITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT Agenda Item No. 14 (July 28, 2009) TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL FROM: David R. Hunt, City Attorney Ext. 3131, dhunt @city.newport- beach.ca.us SUBJECT: REQUEST TO UPGRADE TEMPORARY PART -TIME DEPUTY CITY ATTORNEY TO REGULAR PART -TIME DEPUTY CITY ATTORNEY AND ADD REGULAR PART -TIME OFFICE ASSISTANT TO THE OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY ISSUE: Should the City Council approve an upgrade of the temporary part-time contract attorney position to a regular part-time Deputy City Attorney position and add a regular part-time Office Assistant to the Office of the City Attorney in order to maximize the value of the recent Deputy City Attorney recruitment? RECOMMENDATION: We recommend you augment the staffing in the Office of the City Attorney by authorizing the upgrade of the temporary part-time contract attorney position to a regular part-time Deputy City Attorney position and add a part-time Office Assistant to the Office of the City Attorney in order to meet the needs of the City for legal services. There will be no fiscal impact. These changes can be accomplished by using funds that will be saved in the City Attorney's budget for outside counsel expense for code enforcement matters. DISCUSSION: 1. Background. The City Council has embarked on a program to build the in -house Office of the City Attorney in order to improve day to day legal services and to reduce the expense of outside counsel. To pursue this effort, in March of this year, the Council authorized the upgrading of a regular part-time Deputy City Attorney position to a regular full -time position and the initiation of recruitment for that full -time position. The recruitment Request to Upgrade Temporary Part-Time Deputy City Attorney to Regular Part-Time Deputy City Attorney Council Meeting July 28, 2009 Page 2 commenced May 1, 2009 and is now completed. The process has yielded a surprising number of highly qualified applicants.' In addition to the regular full -time position authorized by Council in March, the Council authorized upgrading the regular part-time Deputy City Attorney position (0.7 FTE) of our office, into a regular full -time position in the recently adopted 2009/10 Fiscal Year Budget. That action thus provides one additional regular full -time Deputy City Attorney position to fill from the now completed recruitment. In addition, the budget authorized the ongoing use of a temporary part-time contract attorney (0.4 FTE) for the office to push forward in dealing with the significant legal issues facing the City. We have conducted a review of other similarly situated in -house city attorney offices. We have attached a table prepared with the information developed in that review. The table analyzes the various cities and their in -house operations in relation to population and overall budgets. As you can see, the staffing as proposed is not out of line with any of the similarly situated cities. 2. Request to Upgrade the Deputy City Attorney Position. We now request that the temporary part-time contract attorney position (0.4 FTE) be upgraded to a regular part-time Deputy City Attorney position of (0.7 FTE). By doing so, we can hire two regular full -time Deputy City Attorneys from the successful recruitment and keep the 0.7 FTE position in the office. This action will maximize the value of recruitment and provide additional resources necessary to meet the demand for efficient and effective in -house legal services. The Office of the City Attorney has approved staffing in the Fiscal Year 2009/10 Budget of five regular full -time attorneys and one temporary part-time contract attorney (0.4 FTE) for a total of 5.4 FTE attomeys.2 This request will increase our approved attorneys by 0.3 FTE to 5.7 FTE attorneys.3 As explained in the Funding Availability Section of this report, there will be no overall cost to the City for this change and no need to increase the budget of the Office of the City Attorney. 1 There were 347 applications submitted in the process. This number was selectively reduced to nine candidates to be interviewed by an oral review panel made up of other experienced public attorneys and further reduced to the five prime candidates after interview by the City Attorney and two Assistant City Attorneys. 2 We are currently operating at a level of 5.1 FTE (City Attorney, two Assistants, 0.7 FTE Deputy, and 0.4 FTE temporary contract attorney). 31 note we count our Paralegal position as a legal professional, but for the purposes of this discussion we are only referencing the staff attorneys. Request to Upgrade Temporary Part-Time Deputy City Attorney to Regular Part-Time Deputy City Attorney Council Meeting July 28, 2009 Page 3 3. Reouest to add Regular Part Time Office Assistant. In addition, we are requesting a regular part-time Office Assistant position (0.45 FTEf be added to our staff. We are currently supporting 6.1 legal professionals, the 5.1 FTE attorneys noted above and one Paralegal, with one full -time Office Assistant and one Administrative Assistant.6 This request will increase the clerical staff to 2.4 FTE supporting 6.7 legal professionals should the Council approve the upgrade to the contract attorney position requested above. This increase will create a ration of 2.7 legal professionals to each support staff position. This staffing ratio is well below the standard in other law offices, both public and private. Attachment "A" shows that in the public sector similarly situated cities have an average staffing ratio for their in -house operations of approximately 1.32 legal professionals to each support position. In the private sector, in general law offices have at most three legal professionals to one assistant, and in addition, they uniformly provide further support through the use of file clerks and receptionists, thus significantly reducing the work load for each assistant. We are, therefore, running very lean and need to add to our support resources in order to efficiently move legal work through the office. As with the Deputy City Attorney position upgrade, adding this part-time position will not cause an overall cost increase to the City. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW: This is not a project under CEQA. PUBLIC NOTICE: This agenda item has been noticed according to the Ralph M. Brown Act (72 hours in advance of the public meeting at which the City Council considers the item). It was posted at City Hall and on the City's website. FUNDING AVAILABILITY: Funds are currently available in our budget to pay for this upgrade and addition. They will not, therefore, create a fiscal impact on the City. The overall cost of the positions, a total of $68,666.86,7 will be covered by transferring $70,000 from our outside counsel ° We would add the position at 18 hours per week, a total of 36 hours per pay period. 5 We include our certified position Paralegal in this number. It is not a support g po staff position but, as fully allowed by state law, this position is providing professional legal services under the oversight of the attorneys within the office. G We are authorized to have 6.4 legal professionals, but the hire for the full -time deputy position will be start until August 17, 2009. 7 The cost will be $49,039.06 for the upgrade of the Deputy City Attorney position, salary and benefits and $19,627.80 for the addition of the regular part-time Office Assistant position. We also understand there is currently a recruitment being conducted for part-time Office Assistants that we can use to fill this position. Request to Upgrade Temporary Part -Time Deputy City Attorney to Regular Part -Time Deputy City Attorney Council Meeting July 28, 2009 Page 4 code enforcement budget (0501 -8658, currently funded at the level of $180,000), to our staffing budget items (salaries and benefits). We will also transfer the balance left in our 0510 -7030 temporary staff salaries line item to our regular salaries and benefits line items since we will terminate the temporary part -time contract attorney services effective August 31, 2009. The code enforcement budget will not be short by year's end because we will begin keeping code enforcement cases in -house as soon as the new deputies begin. We previously forecasted beginning to bring code enforcement services back in -house half- way through the fiscal year. We can move that time -line forward; however, since both of the top two candidates for the full -time deputy positions have extensive code enforcement backgrounds. We have examined our current case load and concluded that we can confidently begin the process of bringing the City's code enforcement back in -house when the new attorneys begin serving the City. This change will also provide the City significant savings in outside counsel expense. ALTERNATIVES: You may, of course, take any action you feel is in the best interest of the City. You may: • Grant both requests; or • Deny both requests or • Grant one or the other of the requests; or • Take a different action if you so choose. CONCLUSION: We believe we are in a unique position where we can increase our capacity to perform legal work in- house, increase our efficiency in performing that work, and not incur additional expense not otherwise budgeted. As a result, we recommend this action to the Council for approval. Prepared & Submitted by: David R. Hunt, City Attorney Attachment "A" — In -House City Attorney Comparison, Population, Budget, Staff A09 -00398 M28 CC Mtg Req Upgrade Temp PT DCA to Reg PT DCA.Final ATTACHMENT A Request to Upgrade Temporary Part -Time Deputy City Attorney to Regular Part-Time Deputy City Attorney and Add Regular Part-Time Office Assistant to the Office of the City Attorney In -House City Attorney Comparison Population, Budget & Staff In -House City Attorney Comparison Population, Budget and Staff City City Population (1) FY 09 -10 Proposed Operating Budget FY 09 -10 Proposed Dept Budget (2) Legal Staff Support Staff Details Lona Beach 491,564 $ 3 100 000,000.00 $ 9,708 745.00 22 48 4 specialized Teams (8 attorneys for Dept/Comm's; 4 Harbor issues /Harbor Comm; 5 Liti ation; 2 Workers Comp) Anaheim 343,973 $ 1 318,399 925.00 $ 6,048,676.00 23 9 Civil and Prosecution Divisions Santa Ana 339,130 $ 567 165 680.00 $ 2,203 146.00 13 4.5 3 Divisions: Administrative, Developmental & General Counsel Glendale 207,303 $ 801 601 534.00 $ 1890252.00 14 Pending 3 Divsions: 8 Transactional, 1 Code Enforcement 3 Litigation Huntin ton Beach 192,620 $ 336,790 060.00 $ 2,822 760.00 9 5 ` "FY 08 -09 Oran a 1 138,640 $ 1,681 569.00 4 3 ' "FY 08 -09 Ventura 103,706 $ 250 704 693.00 $ 1,566,726.00 5 Pendin Santa Monica 87,664 $ 510 000 000.00 $ 8,524,475.00 25 17.6 Santa Maria 86,356 $ 54 978 740.00 $ 1,131,790.00 3 5.5 "FY 08 -09 Santa Barbara 86,093 $ 283 000 000.00 $ 2174 912.00 6 5 Newport Beach 79,661 $ 210,940,117.00 $ 1,391,191.00 6.5 2 Currently 5 legal staff Manhattan Beach 36 605 $ 8iT. 705 517.00 1 $ 517 559.00 1.5 1 (1) Population based on US Census Bureau 2008 estimated figures (2) Budget and staffing figures are based on FY 09 -10 (unless otherwise indicated) department approved budget for staff and operating expenses, does not include outside counsel expenses July 20, 2009 Page 1