Greetings!
I am delighted to share the results of a year-long effort to save taxpayer dollars in the City Attorney's Office.
A report released this week by my office shows a savings of millions of dollars in the City's legal costs as payouts, settlements and bills for outside attorneys plummeted in last fiscal year (which ended June 30, 2012).
This brief Mid-Year Annual Report shows that the cost of legal payouts and settlements fell by more than $6.7 million. The 53% decline in payouts and settlements is unprecedented in modern City history.
The cost of outside counsel also fell by more than $2.5 million -- down 40% from the previous fiscal year.
Like other major cities, Oakland routinely hires outside attorneys every year to handle legal work. The amount of money Oakland spends on outside counsel has gone up in recent years in large part because of the deep cuts to the City Attorney's in-house staff.
Despite the loss of in-house staff, the demand for legal services has only increased, meaning the City has been forced to contract out legal services and hire outside attorneys for work that would have been much cheaper to do in-house.
My office worked to limit outside counsel costs whenever and however possible over the last year. We did so by increasing caseloads, carefully managing every outside counsel contract, restructuring the Office to use our in-house resources more strategically and by creating a new protocol for outside counsel to make the hiring process more competitive and more transparent.
As a result, the cost of outside attorneys fell sharply in Fiscal Year 2011-12 (as you can see in the below chart).
These savings are a good start, but we have more work to do. Part of the City Attorney's job is to be a watchdog for taxpayer resources, and that includes resources in our own Office. I believe Oakland needs to focus all available resources on critical priorities like public safety, filling potholes, fixing infrastructure and staffing libraries. I am committed to cutting our legal bills as much as possible while still providing the absolute best legal services to the residents, businesses and taxpayers of Oakland.
You can find more details about these results, and about the work of the City Attorney's Office, on our web site: http://www.oaklandcityattorney.org/home.html
Our commitment to accountability, fiscal responsibility and fair, honest and open City practices continues to be the cornerstone of our work. As always, I look forward to hearing your comments, questions and ideas.
Very truly yours,
Barbara Parker
Oakland City Attorney
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