HomeMy WebLinkAbout25H - LEGAL SVCS REQUEST FOR _
COUNCIL ACTION
CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: CLERK OF COUNCIL USE ONLY:
APRIL 5, 2010
TITLE: APPROVED
? As Recommended
LEGAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH ? As Amended
THE SOHAGI LAW GROUP ? Ordinance on 15' Reading
? Ordinance on 2"d Reading
? Implementing Resolution
? Set Public Hearing For
CONTINUED TO
FILE NUMBER
CITY MANAGER
RECOMMENDED ACTION
Direct the City Attorney to prepare and authorize the City Manager and
Clerk of the Council to execute a legal services agreement with the
Sohagi Law Group.
DISCUSSION
The City Attorney's Office provides legal services to the City, its
officials and employees, and related entities such as the Redevelopment
Agency and the Housing authority primarily through staff attorneys.
However, it is sometimes necessary to retain outside counsel for
specialized fields of practice and matters that have extraordinary
staffing requirements.
Due to a number of pending legally complex and time consuming development
matters, including the Transit Zoning Code and EIR, the related
Redevelopment Agency affordable housing project in the Lacy Neighborhood,
and the Go-Local transportation studies, there is a need to retain
attorneys with specialized skills in the areas of land use, zoning and
environmental law. The Sohagi Law Group, headed by Margaret Sohagi, is a i
renowned public agency firm with the resources and skills to assist the
City Attorney's Office and City and Redevelopment Agency staffs to
prepare the highest quality work products within the restrictive time
schedule that the projects have imposed that will best protect the City's
legal interests.
25H-1
Legal Services Agreement
The Sohagi Law Group
April 5, 2010
Page 2
Margaret Sohagi is a recognized authority on the California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), climate
change and land use planning. For the past 20 years, Ms. Sohagi has
represented only public agencies in complex, high profile land use and
environmental transactional and litigation matters. Ms. Sohagi is also
an Adjunct Professor of Land Use Law at USC Law School, a state-wide
instructor in environmental law, and an instructor for the Judicial
Council of California where she teaches introductory and advanced CEQA
courses to Superior, Appellate, and Supreme Court Judges and court
attorneys. She is AV-rated for highest professional excellence and
ethical standards and is listed in Martindale Hubbell's Register of
Preeminent Lawyers and is also a member of the California Planning
Roundtable.
The firm will apply a maximum billing rate of $325 per hour for attorneys
assigned matters by the City Attorney.
FISCAL IMPACT
Funds are available in the Tax Increment Housing Set Aside Station
District Fund(account no. 50718830-66220-00834001138).
APPROVED AS TO FUNDS AND ACCOUNTS:
,.~~:1
Joseph W. Fletcher Francisco Gutierrez
City Attorney Executive Director
Finance & Management Services Agency
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