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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10A-City Attorney CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO - REQUEST FOR COUNCIL AC From: DIANE C. ROTH SR. ASST. CITY ATTORNEY Li tigation/Prosecutions Subject: Transfer of $259,000 from the Reserved General Fund to the City Attorney's Litigation Budget. Dept: CITY ATTORNEY Date: April 30, 2009 MICC Meeting Date: May 4, 2009 Synopsis of Previous Council Action: On January 5, 2009, the Director of Finance was authorized and directed to amend the FY 2008/2009 budget and appropriate $200,000 from the Reserved General Fund to the City Attorney's Budget as follows: $164,000 to Account No. 001-051-5503 (Litigation-Outside Attorneys) and $36,000 to Account No. 001-051-5177 (Litigation Expenses). Recommended Motion: That the Director of Finance be authorized and directed to amend the FY 2008/2009 budget and appropriate $259,000 from the Reserved General Fund to the City Attorney's Budget as follows: $176,000 to Account No. 001-051-5503 (Litigation-Outside Attorneys) and $83,000 to Account No. 001-051-5177 (Litigation Expenses). ~~-~~ t/ Signature Contact person: Diane C. Roth Phone: 5355 Supporting data attached: Staff Reoort Ward: FUNDING REQUIREMENTS: Amount: $259,000.00 Source: (Acct. No.) (Acct. Description) Reserved General Fund All Finance: Council Notes: Agenda Item No. / () A f:\EASLAND\CoWlcill5.4.09Lit13udget.RCAwpd INTER OFFICE MEMORANDUM OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO To: Mayor and Common Council ~'::;';.~;:;;ym~ ) '1 f April 30, 2009 From: Date: S ubj eel: Payment of Litigation Costs - Agenda Item 10 A Copies: City Clerk, City Treasurer, Acting City Manager, City Manager Designate, Finance Director On January 5,2009 the Mayor and Common Council, on the recommendation ofthe City Manager, approved an additional $200,000 to the City Attorney's office to partially pay for litigation costs and outside attorney fees for pending litigation. Of the additional $200,000 we have $7,875.00 remaining in the Outside Attorney Fee line item and $1,470 remaining in the Litigation Expenses line item. Bills already submitted, but not yet paid, and other legal work that has been performed but not yet billed, far exceed the remaining amount in the litigation budget. Also, at least one jury trial that was supposed to be heard in April will now be tried in June. That case will require a great deal of outside attorney time for both further trial preparation and for the trial itself. The trial will be about ten days in length and will involve at least ten expert witnesses, all of whom are quite expensive. We will be taking the depositions of the plaintiffs expert witnesses over the next several weeks and we are required to pay for their time spent during those depositions. Estimates from outside counsel on fees they have earned and will earn through June 30, 2009 total $238,563. Estimates from outside counsel and in-house litigators for litigation expenses through June 30, 2009 total $122,735. The overall total is $361,298. Memorandum to Mayor and Common Council April 30, 2009 Page two You will recall that in January of this year I informed you that the costs for outside counsel and litigation expenses for the remainder of the fiscal year could reach as much as another $400,000, in addition to the $200,000 the City Manager recommended at that time. It is my belief that we may be able to keep these predicted costs down further, although I cannot guarantee that it will not be necessary to request additional funding for litigation before the conclusion of this fiscal year. Despite the $361,298 estimation by outside counsel, after conferring with the Acting City Manager I am limiting my request at this time to an agreed-upon compromise of $259,000. The Acting City Manager has informed me that the $259,000 will come from the City's Reserved General Fund. She believes there is approximately $2.5 million left in the Reserved General Fund as of this date. She will have the exact amount available for your information at Monday's Council meeting. Although we had thought, as we told you in January, that we would be returning to you to request more funding for litigation costs by February or March, we have been able to avoid making that request until now. We have achieved this delay by keeping some additional cases in house that should be farmed out to outside counsel and by limiting expenditures on some cases, although doing so has possibly been to the detriment of the city's position in some of those cases. Nonetheless, some cases have had to be farmed out for unavoidable reasons, including expertise needed and/or the need to assign more than one attorney to a particular case. At the Council meeting on April 20, 2009 you approved the retention of outside counsel on two cases, the agreements for which are on today's agenda. (One of those agreements will now be tabled because we were able to settle one of those lawsuits this week.) It is noted that the labor difficulties with the Police and Fire departments have resulted in an inordinate amount of attorney fees and litigation costs for the lawsuits filed against the City by employees in those two departments. In addition, four particular police excessive force/wrongful death cases, a slip and fall at a City library that allegedly led to a stroke, and three injured motorcyclists allegedly due to poor city pavement have all contributed to the increased costs this fi seal year. Finally, we have one case involving a pregnant plaintiff who lost her child after being struck by two vehicles while in a City crosswalk. She has alleged dangerous conditions of public property at the location of the accident due, her attorney claims, to poor lighting and improper posting of the speed limit. Therefore, I respectfully request that the form motion be approved.