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REPORT <br /> To the Honorable Mayor and City <br />Council <br />From the City Manager <br /> <br />June 8, 2015 <br /> <br />SUBJECT <br />Legal Professional Services Agreements and Budgets <br /> <br />RECOMMENDATION <br />Approve by Motion Legal Professional Services Agreements and Budget Authorizations <br />as Specified in Report <br /> <br />BACKGROUND <br />Pursuant to the Charter, the City Attorney, “shall be the legal advisor of the council and <br />all other city officials,’ shall draft all legal documents as required, and it “shall be the <br />duty of the city attorney to, “prosecute or defend as the case may be, all suits or cases <br />to which the city may be a party*.” [Charter Section 44] With its compact staff of 3 full- <br />time in-house attorneys (including the City Attorney), the Legal Department handles all <br />of the City’s legal work. However, under her direction and supervision, the City Attorney <br />assigns some work to special counsel when a matter would cause an over-consumption <br />of in-house resources or would benefit from specialized knowledge. By way of example, <br />during Fiscal Year 2013-2014, 3.5 attorneys in the Legal Department documented 7200 <br />hours of in-house legal work and assigned only 1,744 hours of legal work to special <br />counsel (excluding government tort litigation which is accounted for and managed <br />differently). <br />Based on the authority inherent in the Charter-described City Attorney duties, the City <br />Attorney identifies and selects special counsel for designated assignments, enters into <br />legal agreements, and reviews invoices for that work. Pursuant to the Redwood City <br />(RWC) City Code 2.72 and 2.77, expenditures for professional service agreement are <br />authorized as follows: (1) work anticipated to be in excess of $60,000 is approved by <br />the City Council; (2) work anticipated to be between $10,000 and $60,000, may be <br />authorized by the City Manager; and (3) work not exceeding $10,000 may be authorized <br />by a Department Head. <br />Most special counsel assignments are limited in scope and duration and therefore cost <br />less than $10,000. However, the cumulative work assigned to a particular firm handling <br />a number of different, limited assignments may exceed $10,000 or may even exceed <br />7.1.I. - Page 1