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Home My WebLink AboutFY 2016 Budget Presentation-County AttorneyR EC~!'/t.f1 ·15 MAR 19 P3 :QQ --' I ;:-' . f • -'• ' COUNTY OF KAUA'I OFFICE OF THE COUNTY ATTORNEY 2016 Budget Presentation Mauna Kea Trask County Attorney Stephen F. Hall First Deputy County Attorney -- Growing Kaua'i responsibly. OFFICE OF THE COUNTY ATTORNEY I. Mission Statement The mission statement for the County Attorney's Office is "to diligently render proficient legal services ethically and honorably; and to act as an advisor and advocate to the various county entities which comprise the County ofKaua'i on behalf of the people." II. Value Statement A e Malama ho'i ke kanaka nui a me kanaka iki Respect alike [the rights of] men great and humble -An excerpt from Mamala-hoe Kanawai, The Law of the Splintered Paddle III. Goal and Objectives The Office's goal is to provide timely competent legal advice and representation to the Mayor, County Council, and to all Departments, Commissions, Boards and Agencies. Competent representation requires the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness, and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation. The Office's objectives are as follows: 1. Decrease the use of special counsel. 2. Allow for each deputy to attend at least one specialized attorney training program. 3. Educational opportunities for the public in the form oflegal informational pieces (as opposed to opinions) that instruct the public how to better participate and understand the County governmental process. IV. FY2014 Successes and Achievements We have successfully provided general assistance, legal guidance, and legal support to the following entities:· the County Council, each councilmember, the Office of the County Clerk, the Office of the County Auditor, the Mayor, the Office of the Mayor, the ADA Coordinator, Life's Choices Kaua'i, Mayor's Advisory Committee for Equal Access (MACFEA), Public Information Office, Boards and Commissions, the Agency on Elderly Affairs, Civil Defense Agency, Finance Department, Procurement Division of the Finance Department, Economic Development, Fire Department, Housing Agency, Liquor Control, Parks & Recreation, Personnel Services, Planning Department, Police Department, Prosecuting Attorney, Public Works, Transportation Agency, and Water Department. 2016 Budget Presentation Page 1 We have successfully provided general assistance, legal guidance, and legal support to the: Arborist Committee, Board of Ethics, Board of Review, Board of Water Supply, Building Board of Appeals, Charter Review Commission, Civil Service Commission, Committee on the Status of Women, Cost Control Commission, Fire Commission, Historic Preservation Commission, Open Space Commission, Planning Commission, Police Commission, and Salary Commission. Effective January 1, 2015 the County Attorney's Office changed the structure of the office into two groups: the Litigation Unit and the Advice & Counsel unit. The Litigation Unit is comprised of four Deputy County Attorneys as well as the County Attorney. This move was done without the use of any extra funds or expenditures. The office now takes more cases "in house" while simultaneously decreasing our need to expend special counsel funds. Having more deputies actually litigating cases will also serve to support our department's vested with regulatory authority by providing them the essential back up and advocacy in the appropriate administrative and or judicial forum(s). Due to the restructuring of the Office of the County Attorney, the Advice & Counsel Unit is able to increase their focus on providing well thought advice to all of the County' by allowing them to focus their practice on advice and counsel 100% of the time. This new, strong Advice & Counsel Unit is anticipated to increase communication among departments while simultaneously reducing redundancies, increasing consistency of advice; and decreasing turnaround time between the attorney's office and the various departments. The continued support of the expansion of the County's Native Hawaiian stewardship program and expanding the program to include community agricultural endeavors is a constant source of accomplishment. Recently we have seen a number of positive developments in our litigation cases. Another success is our ability to find and keep qualified attorneys that make up a stable core group. The following are statistics that we use to keep track of our case load. However, the statistics do not nearly demonstrate the qualitative work that we do. V. Performance Measures Document Preparation, Review, 7/01/13 -2/26/14 7/01/14-2/27/15 and Approval Statistics Opinions 63 97 Number of opinions Legal documents 108 75 (proclamations, ordinances, rules, and resolutions) Contracts 3 81 411 (materials, labor, supplies, equipment, consultant appraisal, services, and construction) 2016 Budget Presentation Page2 7/01/13 -2/26/14 7/01/14-2/27/15 Conveyances 176 238 (dedication, warranty, quitclaim and correction deeds, easements, and miscellaneous agreements) Miscellaneous documents 2,466 1,831 (revocable permits, waiver and indemnity agreements, permits, right-of-entry documents, releases, leases, concession agreements, charter of incorporation and by-laws, legislative bills, claims, court pleadings) Documents reviewed 3,492 2,642 Documents approved as to form and legality 1,132 811 Documents prepared 495 316 Court Matters Cases Filed Pending 07/01/14 -Pending 07/01/14 01/30/15 Closed 01/30/15 CASES FILED AGAINST COUNTY U.S. Supreme Court 1 0 0 1 9th Circuit Court of Appeals 0 1 0 1 U.S. District Court 7 1 1 7 U.S. Bankruptcy Court 0 0 0 0 Hawaii Supreme Court 2 1 0 3 Inter. Court of Appeals 11 0 0 11 Circuit Court, 1st -3rd 7 0 4 3 Circuit Court -5th 111 21 32 100 District Court 0 0 0 0 Department of Health, State of Hawaii 0 0 0 0 Land Court, State of Hawaii 1 0 0 1 Admin. Hearings, State of Hawaii 0 0 0 0 U.S. EPA 0 0 0 0 Tax Appeal Court 33 11 0 44 2016 Budget Presentation Page 3 Cases Filed Pending 07/01/14 -Pending 07/01/14 01/30/15 Closed 01/30/15 CASES FILED BY COUNTY U.S. Supreme Court 0 0 0 0 9th Circuit Court of Appeals 0 0 0 0 U.S. District Court 0 0 0 0 2nd Judicial District Court, State of Nevada (County of Washoe) 1 0 0 1 U.S. Bankruptcy Court 0 0 0 0 Hawaii Supreme Court 0 0 0 0 Inter. Court of Appeals 1 0 0 1 Circuit Court, 1st -3rd 0 0 0 0 Circuit Court -5th 9 0 2 7 District Court 18 0 1 17 Department of Health, State of Hawaii 1 0 0 1 Tax Appeal Court 0 0 0 0 CLAIMS AGAINST COUNTY 20 2 0 22 CLAIMS FILED BY COUNTY 3 1 0 4 WORKERS' COMPENSATION 2 0 1 1 GRIEVANCES 0 4 0 4 CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION 2 0 1 1 HA WAl'I LABOR RELATIONS BD 13 1 2 12 EEOC 17 1 6 12 DLIR~ EMPLOYMENT SECURITY APPEALS 1 0 1 0 DCCA 0 0 0 0 MISCELLANEOUS 7 1 0 8 Land Use Commission & Public Utilities Commission These statistics do not include this office's handling of the contested case (or more informal) hearings in front of our County boards and commissions, such as Planning Commission, Board of Review, and Board of Water Supply. 2016 Budget Presentation Page4 The following are cases that were either dismissed or settled without County paying any mom es: Claims 11 Grievances/ Arbitration 1 Court Cases 6 In addition, we have successfully assisted many of our departments with problematic issues prior to the filing of claims or cases against the County (i.e., prevention). VI. Challenges The Office of the County Attorney faces the same challenge as any other office in the County: budgeting for the needs of the office. Our office, however, is unique because our largest costs each year is special counsel, the need for which is difficult to project and nearly impossible to predict. Budgeting for litigation cases is notoriously difficult. The general rule is that the cost of any legal case is probably four times as much as the client expects it to be, and usually twice what even the lawyer expects. An analysis of our case load and associated costs show that legal proceedings rooted in political and policy disagreements are our most expensive cases both in terms of money spent and attorney time and or resources. In an effort to control costs and to contribute to the overall cost cutting measures requested by the administration, the Office of the County Attorney has made the requisite cuts in the only area it can: special counsel. Including the original budget and money bills, the Office of the County Attorney has cut the budget for special counsel by 400% from FY 14 to FY 15. This budget is possible only if every County Department and agency works with the Office of the County Attorney -not against us. Legal advice will not be exclusively couched in a narrowly defined and technical interpretation of the law. Consistent with the Hawai'i Rules of Professional Conduct the Office of the County Attorney will render advice not only with legal matters in mind, but also with considerations of moral, economic, _social, and political factors that may be relevant to the client's situation. The Office of the County Attorney will be both conscious and critical of policies that will increase liability, exposure, and/or result in increased legal costs. The Office of the County Attorney requires continuing legal education -the ongoing training for the attorneys is essential to maintain professional licensure and legal competence. Training cannot be ignored. Professional training only benefits the County. The statistics clearly show that the work load of the County Attorney's Office is increasing faster than the population. This fact addresses and denounces any arguments that the size of a population arbitrarily dictates how many attorneys the County needs to operate efficiently and effectively. Staffing levels will continue to be a challenge in an increasingly regulated and litigious world. 2016 Budget Presentation Page 5 VII. Budget Overvie w 2016 Budget Presentation FY 2015 Operating Budget •Salary and Wages •Benefits •Utili t ies •Vehicle/Equip , Lease •Operations FY 2016 Operating Budget •Salary and Wages •Benefi t s •Utilities •Vehicle/Equip, l ease •Operations Page 6 FY 2015 and FY 2016 Comparison 1,400,000 ~-----------------------~ 1,000,000 800,000 600,000 400,000 200,000 0 Salary and Wages Benefits Salary and Wages * Benefits Utilities Vehicle/Equip, Lease Operations Utilities FY 2015 1,229,273 613,872 5,561 0 816,146 2,664,852 * FY 2015 Benefits include restorinq OPES budget VIII. Budget Discussion Vehicle/Equip, Operat i ons Lease FY 2016 $+I - 1,164,958 -64,315 645,418 31,546 5,000 -561 0 0 540,345 -275,801 2,355,721 -309,131 8 FY2015 FY 2016 0 /o +I - -5.2% 5.1% -10.1% 0.0% -33.8% -11.6% The key changes to our budget this coming fiscal year revolve around the creation of a litigation unit. In the long run , dedicated litigation attorneys will save the County money and provide quality, consistent work. Connected to the litigation team, our office's budget has required increases to litigation costs, travel costs and training. However , this was done with no salary increases and by overall achieving the Mayoral requested budget cuts of 6.9%. In Fiscal Year 2014 the budget allocated for special counsel was $650,000.00. The fiscal year started July 1 , 2014. By the end of the calendar year, effectively that entire amount was encumbered necessitating the Office to request a money bill for another $650,000.00 within the first quarter . In order to prevent this from occurring in the future the County Attorney's Office 2016 Budget Presentation Page 7 implemented the necessary strategic changes to decrease the need and expense of special counsel effective January 12, 2015. The Office has been re-organized into two units, special counsel contracts have been cancelled and cases have been settled. County Attorney's Office has made its 7% budget reduction in the spirit of cooperation. Now we must work together to effectuate this budgetary policy statement of fiscal responsibility, we must all lead. IX. Succession Planning Looking to the future of the Office of the County Attorney, we must recognize that this office, like any law firm, will experience attorney attrition. County Attorneys, in general, have a short life span. Despite this fact, the current County Attorney will continue to give appropriate, well considered legal advice regardless of the popular opinions on any individual issue. This service, however, comes at a price. Given his past experience, the County Attorney anticipates that providing correct legal advice that may be contrary to popular opinion will not engender popular approval. Rather, such action leads to an adversarial climate and higher rate of turn over. With deputy county attorneys in mind, there often is attorney attrition due to change in the County Attorney. Also, as time moves on deputy county attorneys tend to leave the County in order to enter private practice, allowing them to earn more money and focus on the legal fields that they are passionate about. As for the current appointees, our deputies are steadily developing specialties in their respective assignments and have been increasing their knowledge over the past six years. All of the attorneys are required to have knowledge in the basics of County government including but not limited to our county charter, county codes, contract law, procurement law and employment law. Training assists all of the attorneys in the Office of the County Attorney to stay abreast of current trends and changes in the law, and continue to provide excellent service. The Office of the County Attorney is only as valuable as its staff. In recognition of the invaluable role of the staff and to ensure continuity in service, staff training and empowerment is very important. County Attorney clerks and office personnel need to be trained and empowered so that the Office may continue to operate regardless of the individual County Attorney or deputies within the Office. For this reason, the County Attorney has invited office personnel to participate in office structuring that works for them as well as for the attorneys and encourages them to take on more responsibilities and to challenge themselves so that they may increasingly contribute to the mission of the Office. The County will likely need to hire more attorneys in the near future, with an eye towards those who are eager to work for the public and facilitate the passing of the baton. Although government is always looking to save money, the fact remains that as our legislators pass more laws more lawyers are needed. As regulations increase there will be a concurrent need to increase your staff of attorneys as well. 2016 Budget Presentation Page 8