CC Minutes - 11/10/99 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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D.Work Session: Provision of Legal Services Mr. Johnson said the item had been scheduled to address the council's concerns and make staff and legal counsel available to answer questions about legal services for the City of Eugene. He said that there were four areas identified by the council as areas of concern: 1) the overall cost of legal services; 2) the concept of an in-house legal counsel; 3) conflict of interest issues related to the legal counsel; and 4) the issue of competitive solicitation for legal services. Mr. Johnson said that page 156 of the briefing statement related to the item provided information on the cost of legal services, and noted the current budget of $1.1 million for legal services. He reminded the council that the Budget Committee reduced the initially budgeted amount by $100,000. Mr. Johnson said that the briefing statements including excerpts from the studies of legal services done over the years; the full reports were attached as appendices. The reports concluded that Eugene's costs were competitive with similarly sized jurisdictions. Regarding the issue of an in-house legal counsel, Mr. Johnson said that he asked staff to take a fresh look at the issue and establish a budget for an in-house counsel. He said that staff had used salary information from other Oregon cities such as Gresham and Salem and benefit levels that were consistent with City financial policies. Staff examined the costs of law libraries, materials and supplies, and continuing education from the cities of Salem and Gresham. Staff had also calculated indirect support costs. He offered to make the information, which was summarized in the briefing statement, available to the council. Mr. Johnson addressed the subject of competitive solicitation. He said that the City's current law firm, Harrang Long Gary Rudnick, had served in that capacity for 28 years. However, information from other Oregon jurisdictions indicated that was not an unusual situation; for example, Springfield had the same legal counsel for 35 years, School District 4J had the same legal counsel for 21 years, and Eugene Water & Electric Board had the same legal counsel for 75 years. He said that information notwithstanding, staff also looked at the recommendations of the Government Finance Officers Association, which recommended that local governments consider issuing a request for proposals for auditing services every five years. He said that such an approach could result in a new way of providing the service or a reduction in costs. Regarding conflict of interest issues, Mr. Johnson said that he had asked the City's legal counsel to hire a third-party attorney, Robed H. Fraser, to review all the conflict of interest requests made to the City of Eugene and to review them from a legal and ethical point of view. He had also hired an attorney to review the work of the attorney hired by the legal counsel. Mr. Johnson introduced Brad Tellum from the law firm of Barton and Leibman. Mr. Tellum said he had looked at the materials prepared by the City's legal counsel related to the rules related to conflict of interest, how the law firm addresses those conflicts, and what conflicts of interest had arisen during the past five years involving the City and how they were addressed. He had also reviewed the materials prepared by the outside counsel hired by the firm. Mr. Tellum said he had considered the materials in terms of two questions: 1) how do lawyers determine where conflicts arise, and 2) once that determination was made, what kind of systems were implemented. MINUTES--Eugene City Council November 10, 1999 Page 9 5:30 p.m.