With county staff estimating next year’s budget will require
almost $5 million in reserve funds to meet proposed expenditures,
the San Benito County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved several
new budget policies, including one that requires the county
counsel’s approval before hiring outside law firms.
Hollister – With county staff estimating next year’s budget will require almost $5 million in reserve funds to meet proposed expenditures, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved several new budget policies, including one that requires the county counsel’s approval before hiring outside law firms.
The board is now hoping the new policy on outside legal counsel will decrease costs, which have drained the county’s coffers of about $3 million since April 2000. After initial 2005-2006 budget requests from all the county’s department heads, the county’s revenues fell $4.8 million short of its $73.3 million expenses, creating the option of cutting spending or drawing from the $14.5 million in reserve, which County Finance Director Dan Vrtis estimates will be dried-up in a few more years if reserve spending continues.
Currently, any department within the county can hire or seek legal advice from an outside law firm as long as they have the funds in their budget, according to Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz, who is also on the board’s budget subcommittee and helped develop the new policies. That means even though the county has a “blanket” law firm it pays to handle all its legal problems on a case-by-case basis, any department head with some padding in his or her budget can run out and consult or hire an outside lawyer on the county’s dime, De La Cruz explained.
“Because that has become very expensive and we are up to $3 million in outside legal fees, we felt that to control costs we’d go with a different procedure that’s a global, blanket method of trying to cut costs,” he said. “Because we have a blanket company … if they provide those services (that a department head needs), we want them to use that and that’s saving tax payers’ dollars.”
According to records obtained by the Free Lance, the county dropped almost $300,000 between September and December of last year. This was on top of the $2.5 million it spent between April 2000 and April 2004 on lawyer fees.
Under the new policy, if county counsel believes the legal needs of the department in question are very specific and require specialized legal counsel that the blanket firm doesn’t offer, the county’s top attorney can then approve the request, De La Cruz said.
“The process is going to be A: can our template law firm handle this case? and B: do we have the money?” he said.
The county’s law firm of choice – San Francisco-based Liebert Cassidy and Whitmore – specializes in representing management in suits brought against them by employees, according to its Web site.
“We use them for personnel issues on an as-needed basis,” Acting County Administrative Officer Susan Lyons said. “We use them for almost all labor issues, but we have used other firms based on their expertise in certain fields, and county counsel handles some cases.”
In addition to Interim County Counsel Claude Biddle, the county employs three deputy county counsels. Although one of the three deputies recently resigned, Biddle is searching for a replacement with expertise in litigation hoping the county can handle more cases without outside help in the future, Lyons said.
The county is also discussing finding less expensive law firms with its insurance company to lower outside legal costs, Lyons added.
“They have some contacts with firms we could possibly use that might cost less,” she said.
Besides Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, the county has chosen to hire outside lawyers from Sacramento firm Hyde Miller Owen and Trost to defend itself in cases such as Juan Monteon vs. (former County Supervisor) Richard Scagliotti.
In addition to the expected savings from the new policy, department heads were able to trim about $2 million from their budget requests after meeting informally last week. Much of the savings came from sacrificing services and equipment from various county departments, according to County Management Analyst Robin Scattini.
Departments heads also proposed saving another $1 million by leaving various staff positions vacant for another year. Many of the positions department heads had requested have been vacant for over a year, Scattini said, and those cut from next year’s budget requests are ones that “the departments were willing to forgo for another year.”
Integrated Waste Management Director Mandy Rose also estimated she could shave about $500,000 off her budget, and Sheriff Curtis Hill came up with about $100,000 in overtime expenses he could cut, Scattini added.
“After that it was trimming services and supplies,” she said.
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at [email protected].
