Hello Council,
I'm sending a document that I developed in connection with wanting Council to have an open search process for the City Attorney. The file date may have changed due to me fixing a few typos. I prepared it for one of the closed door sessions related to the process. I appeared in person as did another resident. My document includes some financial analysis that might be helpful. During the two year period before I developed the document, I attended the City's Finance and Audit Committee meetings regularly and also read budget and CAFR documents in detail. I also spent hours finding and reviewing the City Attorney contracts.
A comparison and contrast of the fees under the Bill McClure City Attorney era and the current fees may not be an "Apples to Apples" comparison. Bill McClure, I believe, retired with a generous City pension although he was only a contract employee. The pension arrangement should be added to the total under the fees paid to his firm. The pension practice was stopped after he retired. McClure's firm also got development-related fees (other than for single-family homes) that seemed to pass through the City of MP but then go to McClure's firm. if I could have traced the amounts, I might have included them in my write up. As I note, the amounts were not really findable and the references to them quite oblique.
My general impression was that the development fees paid to McClure's firm were considerable. These fees may have offset legal billing fees to the City. I consider the fees to be important to consider when evaluating what we pay now and what we paid then. At the time, I also considered it somewhat "taboo" to question the idea of a City Attorney dynasty that might have started as early as 1934. Please see the chart on page 8. Thus, my memo was written in more passive English than the active verb voice I would prefer.
I attach my document as it might be helpful. As a clear disclaimer, I wanted the Council to select a legal firm with a "fire wall" between developer interests and those of the City of Menlo Park. I would have preferred an in-house attorney although I like and respect our current one. As to concerns about laws we did not follow, I could have added ConnectMenlo and its premise that it "followed all applicable laws." That was not correct.
Lynne Bramlett
650-380-3028
