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HomeMy WebLinkAboutspeaker cardsy 0 ave 90 C C -0 c JA C C t0 � O � C5 d age N 0 c6 z v � U) N 2 0 0 9 ._I 0 t a o a 0 CL cn N N •C 0 'O C J V z U HC E E C OC 0 0 c V w H C .0 L o 4 L ~ � Z CL o 0 a ag N = `° y CCD m ai m Q a z < 0 !V J V z U E E C 0 0 a 0 CL o 0 a a En To: Mayor and City Council City of San Bernardino r From: James F. Penman'; R ident and Attorney at Law Date: June 20, 2018 Re: Municipal Legal Services Please forgive my presumptiveness. The following are the written part of my comments from today's Public Comments Item on the Agenda. Alternative Recommendations on Agenda Item #40 1. Continue the issue of the processing of proposals from law firms in response to the City's RFP to a future meeting and schedule the matter for a public hearing so the Mayor and Council have input from other sources as to what truly saves money where legal fees are concerned. 2. Take no Action on Resolution No. 2018-183. ALTERNATIVE MOTION: First, have the City Attorney state the alleged potential conflict on the record; Then move to waive any such conflict and direct the City Attorney to contact the law firm of Cota Cole and Huber and negotiate an agreement with that firm, subject to the approval of the Mayor and City Council, to have attorneys Jolena Grider, Steven Graham, and Nicole Roggeveen to temporarily continue to provide legal services to the City of San Bernardino in the San Bernardino City Attorney's office under the immediate supervision of the City Attorney. Move to authorize the City Attorney to negotiate any other agreements he believes are necessary to temporarily staff the City Attorney's Office within the constraints of the City Attorney office budget, subject to the approval of the Mayor and City Council, until final direction is received from the Mayor and City Council. 3. rake no action on Urgency Ordinance No. MC -1497. 4. Take no action on Ordinance No. MC -1498. Please see notes on following page: NOTES Please note that Deputy City Attorney Nicole Roggeveen, in the past 10 months, working as an in-house deputy city attorney, has processed 34 lawsuits at an annual salary of approximately $120,000 plus benefits. By keeping track of her hours, and utilizing her previous experience working for a private law firm, Ms. Roggeveen has calculated that a private law firm would have billed its clients $1.2 million for the hours she has worked on these 34 cases. (Statistics obtained from the Office of the City Attorney.) Other deputy city attorneys have realized similar savings for the City of San Bernardino. It is not true that outside law firms are less expensive. Before voting on outsourcing, find out how Palm Springs is saving money by going from a contract city attorney to an in-house city attorney (beginning in 2017). In 1987 a new city attorney and five new city council members were elected in one election cycle in the City of San Bernardino. One of the primary issues in all six elections was the high cost of litigation, the large sums being paid out to private law firms to defend the City, the fact that the City was settling most of its law suits that were farmed out, and the fact that the City was farming out all of its lawsuits. The City's outside counsel had lost several high profile law suits, including the Hampshire Flood lawsuit which was filed by the city residents who lost their homes in a flood. The City should have prevailed in that litigation. The fact that the City Council at that time "had allowed" that to happen resulted in two council members resigning before their terms were up. Therefore, elections were held in all five Wards. No incumbents were re-elected in that election. All were defeated by challengers. Attorney fees and lawsuit costs are often important issues in municipal elections if they can be shown to be excessive. Studies in the 1990s and in the previous decade demonstrated that outside counsel were not providing legal services at a less expensive rate than in-house counsel. This was attributed to the profit factor. Such profits exceeded the cost of the benefits paid to in house municipal attorneys in those studies. The newly elected city attorney brought in two in-house litigation attorneys, all cases were brought back in and evaluated. The majority remained in house. Those that needed special expertise were farmed out. The outside counsel budget was reduced from $750,000 per year (1987 costs) and the two additional attorneys cost less than $200,000 with benefits. Within two years the number of lawsuits pending against the city dropped from approximately 187 to less than 100. This was because the message to the local legal community was received, no more settlements on nuisance lawsuits. All such lawsuits were prepared for trial which cost the attorneys taking them on contingency fees a great deal of money. A large number of the existing nuisance lawsuits were dismissed before trial. Within two years no local attorneys were bringing nuisance lawsuits against the City. Such suits counted for the majority of the number of cases filed against the City prior to the 1988- 89 fiscal year. Mayor, Council members, I do not like speak in public, but I have to speak for animals who cannot speak for themselves. I prefer to speak in terms of facts. Unfortunately, I only became of aware of this situation last week and have not had ample time to fact check and argue points made in submitted Staff Report and/or the newspaper articles I found on this subject. So, I will briefly mention a few points: I live in the 7`h ward and have been active with a local dog rescue for at least ten years and rescuing what I could before that. Personally I have been involved with over 200 dog rescues in the 25 years I have lived here. The first issue is there is a HUGE doggy community in San Bernardino. I always participated in the fund raisers years ago for the Humane Society, and know that the doggy community would rally together again for the rebuilding of a dog shelter. No doubt about that. What cannot be stressed enough is that if the shelter is contracted with Riverside THERE WILL BE DOG ABANDONMENTS, REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOU THINK THIS CONTRACT WILL PROVIDE. People in the city of San Bernardino WILL NOT be going to Jurupa to surrender animals. 1 cannot stress that enough. The police department's interests are not dogs, so, of course, they want to wash their hands of it. Let the shelter go back to the way it was organized before the bankruptcy. I have the utmost confidence that Oscar will provide great care of the animals and lead the shelter in a productive and positive direction, as he has been doing, and let the community come together to do what is right for both the citizens and animals of San Bernardino. Otherwise, the City of San Bernardino will be going backwards, not forwards, with the work that has been done by the local dog recues and shelter, and I will again be picking up two to three strays a day. Maria Kemnitz Anima Co t oI no ra : QVACQu ci eet" 6 0 8 I am not an expert on Animal Control. I've read the 18 page report and am a resident 4XC�� 1. Page 1358: Start with Background information. Staff recognizes animal control operation will not create a large annual budgetary savings"! 2. page 1376- Commission Meeting Minutes: I approve their recommendation that a group be formed to research fundraising options to keep animal shelter opened and not support privatizing to Riverside. Why? I understand the directive to City Manager to review services that can be privatized. This is not the service San Bernardino residents want privatized. We are already experiencing two: garbage and fire protection. These are different in relation to our daily lives. The personal is political. Our voices and bodies are here to tell you that you do not have our support for the staff s recommendation to privatize animal control services. Our pets are part of our family life and involve our daily activities. Three points I would make: 1. Related to Capital Improvements: The facility has been a need for many years and unfortunately a strategy plan was not prioritized in past council years. It is overstated as a crisis NOW combining its replacement, the services and all in this staff report and give it to Riverside to deal with. There are rumors that need verification that there are sources that are responding since this publicity to deal with improvements. 2. The Police Department is correct It does not want to manage an animal shelter. I support that position but not to Riverside in another County. 3. Not only the Commission but at public meetings, opinions express no support for private transfer of animal control service to another County. For programs to be successful you want support of the residents. I have heard councilmembers say how hard some of your votes are. Your roles have changed from a charter city administration to Council/manager one. I recognize this is not easy to do and costly don't use this as an excuse. Hear our voices in this matter. It does not create large savings, families are all ready dealing with increase costs from recent outsourcing and privatization and this is a city service they want here not 27 miles away actually 54 miles total for the return ride and a personal assault on quality of life since their pet is part of the family. Persons who have pets have special feelings for all pets just like parents expressions about their children. Council this is not the service to outsource to Riverside. We want it here! Empower the Commission! o® a a 0 0 � a o n CL 3 CL gym+ A 2 W C42 C-2 A C40 x aw �Px 000 E x H 0 W w � o a � (A � •V 'a C Q 02 Of H p C E E C y C .E- L � Of M aEW 0 r u z v (D 4) 0 0 �C a t 0 tf CL O a OL cn 3 V O � 1 UV 6 r u z v (D 4) 0 0 �C a t 0 tf CL O a OL cn 3 10 rA W a E v Hcm o W v G es O a 00 d a w d z CD E- CD E Q z W U2 a PCsd Ova C Q p C E 4) V cc (D y C ,c .Y O U) % Z— E a� CD Q CD O Co a Q 0 0 Q t 0 CL o a Cl. M CL cn 0 J U Z V N N ' 0 0 � C Q 0 0 a o a CL r S. U2 m CD Q;K 419 CD A � � W L9 = C C 7 a�IM HC C 0 �E� cr CC a C N � 0 0 c 0 a 0 a 0 a U) C/) EO m E a m 0 Z co C13 0 z a 0 L 0 CL CL CD 0 'c tf 0 Q. Q U) 0 L O CL CL m cn N C � O O a c, IM F� C C INO C C y C .— R N -�O x b. 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