Greetings!
There's been a lot going on in the City Attorney's Office over the last few months. I'm proud to share some of the work that my office is doing to represent the interests of residents and businesses in Oakland.
Some highlights from the last two months:
Graffiti Enforcement Ordinance
This week, we proposed an ordinance to set up Oakland's first comprehensive Graffiti Enforcement Program. The ordinance co-sponsored by Councilmember Nancy Nadel will enhance penalties for graffiti violators and will set up a fund to help businesses that are repeat targets of graffiti vandalism.
Graffiti is a severe and very costly problem in some of our neighborhoods. Businesses and property owners are tired of paying to clean up graffiti, and left unchecked, pervasive graffiti can encourage more serious blight and crime. Surprisingly, our Municipal Code does not include penalties against vandals and other remedies available under state law. This ordinance will update Oakland's law and create a comprehensive program to deal with graffiti. More information
Army Base Development Deal Signed
Last month, Oakland signed a historic deal to develop the former Oakland Army Base. This project is one of the largest and most complex public-private partnerships in Oakland and Bay Area history.
The City Attorney's Office played a key role by providing legal advice, crafting and negotiating terms of the deal and preparing voluminous documentation. The agreement totals about 1700 pages and with attachments is almost a foot high. It is a culmination of years of effort by the City, the community and others to develop the base and provide good jobs for Oakland residents.
Lawsuits against Blight & Fraud
In October, the City Attorney's Office filed a civil complaint against the owners and operators of an illegal car repair business that was seriously impacting the quality of life in a West Oakland residential neighborhood. Neighbors often complained that the business operated at all hours of the night using a loud gas generator, and visitors routinely littered, drank in public and blocked the sidewalk and neighbors' driveways with vehicles. More information
My office filed another lawsuit last month to recover damages from a local businessman who cheated Oakland taxpayers by filing about two dozen bogus claims for redevelopment money. More information
Win in Court on Pensions
A Superior Court judge recently ruled in favor of the City of Oakland in its lawsuit to correct millions of dollars in overpayments to retirees in the Oakland Police & Fire Retirement System (PFRS), an old pension system established by voters in 1951 for police officers and firefighters and closed to new members in 1976.
The ruling will eliminate an estimated $3.83 million in annual overpayments to retirees in the PFRS system. It also directs the PFRS Board to recover millions of dollars in past overpayments to retirees since 2008. Elimination of these overpayments will significantly reduce the City's future obligations to the pension system, thereby saving taxpayers millions of dollars. More information
Savings in the City Attorney's Office
If you didn't see our last newsletter, I am delighted to share the results of a year-long effort to save taxpayer dollars in the City Attorney's Office.
Our recent Mid-Year Annual Report shows that the cost of legal payouts and settlements fell by more than $6.7 million in the last year. 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 City Council's decision to make deep cuts to the City Attorney's in-house staff.
Despite the loss of 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.
Over the last year, we have worked to limit outside counsel costs whenever and however possible. 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 to make the hiring process more competitive and more transparent.
As you can see in the below chart, the cost of outside attorneys fell sharply in Fiscal Year 2011-12.
These savings are a good start, but we have more work to do. 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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