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Home My WebLink About36-City Attorney .. 0,..... . I ~ " ~ ~.. ~.,... , .. ~ ... 8T AFF REPORT Council Meeting Date: OCTOBER 1, 2001 TO: FROM: DATE: AGENDA ITEM: Mayor and Common Council City Attorney's Office September 27,2001 36 Recently, the Mayor and Common Council asked the City Attorney to provide a summary of the amounts paid to attorneys hired to represent the City and its employees. Outside attorneys are retained upon the recommendation of the City Attorney with the approval of the Mayor and Common Council. Currently, there are 24 litigated matters handled by outside counsel. The breakdown as of October I, 2001, is as follows: Lewis, D' Amato, Brisbois & Bisgaard 18 Law Offices of Benjamin Ladinig- 1 Gresham, Savage, Nolan & Tilden- 2 Best, Best & Krieger I Law Offices of Steven O'Neal- I .l 24 'The City enters agreements from time to time in which a third party agrees to defend and indemnify the City in suits filed against the City. In some agreements, the City is also named as an additional insured in the third party's insurance policy. The City is being defended and indemnified in the above noted matters. The City Water Department is paying for the services of Gresham, Savage, Nolan & Tilden in one of the two matters. Mundell, Odium & Haws The current City Attorney took office on June I, 1987. At that time, the City was a defendant in 300+ litigated matters, all of which were handled by outside attorneys. The City was the plaintiff, or prosecuting party, in only one matter which was also handled by outside attorneys. Currently the City is a party in 85 lawsuits, 68 as defendant and 17 as the plaintiff. Over seventy-one percent (71%) of the current lawsuits are handled by the City Attorney's office rather than the outside attorneys The table below shows the total number oflitigated matters handled or monitored by the City Attorney's office as of October 1,2001 and on June I, 1987. The table also shows whether the City is the plaintiff or defendant. J{o. ~ C, /l>/J 1m ~ STAFF REPORT Council Meeting Date: October 1, 2001 Agenda Item: 36 Page 2 SUMMARY OF LITIGATION Cases handled by outside attorneys and monitored by City Attorney's Office. . . . . . . . . . . . . Cases handled in the City Attorney's Office. . . . . . . No. of cases where City/Peo./RDA/Defendant . . . . . . . No. of cases where City/Peo./Plaintiff . . . . . . . . . . . . . October I, 2001 24 61 68 17 June 1, 1987 300+ o 300+ I TillS SUMMARY SHOWS THE PAYMENTS MADE TO OUTSIDE LAW FIRMS FOR THE PERIOD FROM JULY 1, 1999 - SEPTEMBER 19, 2001 NO. OF CASES IN WillCR LAW FIRM PAYMENT WAS MADE TOTAL PAID Lewis, D' Amato, Brisbois & Bisgaard 24 $ 633,889.19 Gresham, Savage, Nolan & Tilden * 1 1,860.00 Middlebrook, Kaiser & 2 Popka 29,189.44 Best, Best & Krieger 1 59,420.27 Nielsen, Merksamer, Parrinello, Mueller & Naylor 1 2,397.10 29 $ 726,756.00 Law Firms No. Of Cases Total Paid 5 29 $726,756.00 *Gresham, Savage, Nolan & Tilden handled two matters during this time period. However, a third-party, California Bio-Mass, is paying for the City's defense in one of these matters. The City Attorney's office seeks qualified outside firms in several ways. These include personal knowledge of a lawyer or law firm's abilities, discussions with other attorneys, discussions with the City's Risk Management Department and outreach to interested law firms through the County Bar publication on an annual basis. The City Attorney's office then evaluates law firms based on the abilities of the lawyer to handle various types of cases. In litigation involving the City, Joseph Arias of Lewis, D' Amato, Brisbois & Bisgaard, has handled numerous matters. The City has never had to pay any damages in a case tried by Mr. Arias. No other firm of comparable experience has such a record for the City. ~ INTER OFFICE MEMORANDUM OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO TO: " loft/Ol /}~~.~-;~ ~ 3 ~_ t(~ I?:_~ ~ ;i::' FROM: DATE: October 1, 2001 RE: Status Report on Outside Law Firms Retained by the Economic Development Agency Since July 1, 1999 Attached to this Report are three pages generated by the Economic Development Agency ("EDA") reflecting the total dollars spent by the EDA on outside law firms, and their identities, from July I, 1999 to September 1, 2001. Of note, is the following information: I. Total dollars spent by the EDA on outside law firms: $932,576.44 2. Total dollars paid to Sabo & GreenlLewis, D' Amato, Brisbois & Bisgaard (after merger with Tim Sabo and other attorneys from the former Sabo & Green firm): $908,993.84 (97.47% of total dollars paid) 3. Total dollars paid to all "other" outside law firms during the same time period (the "other" law firms were Mundell, OdIum & Haws for $18,016.40 and Lewis, D' Amato, Brisbois & Bisgaard [used before the merger with Tim Sabo, et al. and thus used different attorneys than currently being utilized at that firm] for $5,521.20: $23,582.60 (2.53% of total dollars paid) On November 8, 2000, by Resolution No. CDC/2000-38, the Community Development Commission entered into a five (5) year AGREEMENT FOR SPECIAL LEGAL COUNSEL AGENDA ITEM #36 /O-I-O( -. SERVICES with the law firm of Lewis, D'Amato, Brisbois & Bisgaard, L.L.P. This Agreement designates certain lawyers in said outside law firm as those that will provide specified legal services as Special Legal Counsel. The Agreement is non-exclusive and may be terminated by either party upon thirty (30) days written notice. For the current fiscal year which commenced July I, 200 I, the EDA has paid $51,922.39 in outside law firm fees, all to Lewis, D' Amato, Brisbois & Bisgaard. attachments AGENDA ITEM #36 '".----.. ~ o , " '" , '" .. ~, "" r Z ::> u ;0. "" ,.. "- a ~ '" .., :I: '" u W :I: u I "" o '" z w > rn .., 1Il ... rn ... o m '" ... a: 1Il w ;0. "" z I ' I~ I: ~ I ~ a,; I Q :- I 0 Q~ I ~~ I' w~ oJ ~ I ~I ",,' ....'" I 0::0:: No::. I I ~~ ~ i >z :> I _ .._~I..__1 I , I I I I i I i I I 01 "'''' ~j: "'''' ~f 0- ...J ...J ,w ...J> ...J'" W~ c"" z;'" .;.)~ ",rn .., Z .... z: '" ... ""' -<>'" co"- " on u o > '" '" . 0- on "' , o z; w '" a: ""'" > "".., ~ 0""' ilia: ""'~ rnrn .... Z ... z: c co. o~ I co a: ~ ~ , o ! g I , I I I I ~ ........ .,;~ ~~ i~ I ~ ~ . <0, '" ~, , '" ~ ~ z w w '" ""w > "".... ~ 0""' u. "" ""'~ rnrn .... Z .. :L '" co. 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