HomeMy WebLinkAbout19E - AUTHORIZATION FOR RFQ LEGAL SRVSREQUEST FOR
COUNCIL ACTION
CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE:
JUNE 3, 2013
TITLE:
AUTHORIZATION TO RELEASE REQUESTS
FOR QUALIFICATIONS FOR SPECIALIZED
LEGAL COUNSEL SERVICES
CI ANAGER
RECOMMENDED ACTION
CLERK OF COUNCIL USE ONLY:
APPROVED
? As Recommended
? As Amended
? Ordinance on 151 Reading
? Ordinance on 2nd Reading
? Implementing Resolution
? Set Public Hearing For_
CONTINUED TO
FILE NUMBER
Authorize the City Attorney to issue request for qualifications for specialized legal services.
DISCUSSION
Background
The Santa Ana City Attorney's Office (CAO) is responsible for providing all legal services for the
City of Santa Ana, its related entities and City boards and commissions. In recent years the CAO
has reduced full time attorney staff from 15 to seven at the present time. The City Council's
approval of a hybrid City Attorney has created an opportunity to carefully examine the work being
done by the office from both a private and public sector approach. This opportunity has resulted
in the establishment of practice groups, an analysis of the equivalent "billable hours" capacity in
the office, the identification of technologies to increase productivity and efficiency and
acknowledgment that certain specialized legal services are best provided by outside legal
counsel.
Analysis
In the CAO's proposed two-year budget for 2013-15 the City Attorney identified actions to support
the two-year approach. One item was to contract out "specialized services" rather than providing
these services on a more costly "on-call" basis.
The City currently has existing agreements with law firms to provide various services. These
agreements have various terms and in some cases have not been reviewed for more than five
years or more. The RFQ process will allow the CAO to identify competitive proposals and
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Authorization to Release RFQ for Legal Services
June 13, 2013
Page 2
recommend to the City Council two firms to provide services in the various broad practice areas
should qualified firms be identified:
1. General Tort Defense (personal injury and property damage)
2. Police Tort Defense (state and federal court)
3. Labor and Employment Transactions, Administrative Proceedings and Litigation
4. General Municipal Law Advisory Assistance
5. Revenue and Financing (bonds, Prop. 218 and taxation)
6. Code Enforcement, Receiverships and Prosecution of Code Violations
7. Successor Agency Assistance
8. Land Use and CEQA
The selected firms would enter into an agreement for a term of no more than three years.
Services would be rendered at the request of the CAO based on service needs.
FISCAL IMPACT
The City currently contracts for outside counsel legal services at an estimated cost of $400,000 to
$500,000 for liability (account 08009051 62300); $50,000 for Red Light Camera enforcement
(account 01114405 62300); over $100,000 for Community Development activities and related
Successor Agency (account 67118021 62300); $100,000 for labor and employment (account
01109050 62300) and several hundred thousand for various other legal services. The City will
continue to incur costs in these areas and the amounts are budgeted through the Risk
Management Fund and various departments. The proposed CAO budget also reserves the costs
of one full-time attorney position for contract services.
APPROVED AS TO FUNDS AND ACCOUNTS
Sonia R. Carvalho
City Attorney
Francisco Gutierrez
Executive Director
Finance & Management Services Agency
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