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Home My WebLink AboutFY 2019 Budget Presentation (Office of the County Attorney) COUNTY OF KAUA‘I OFFICE OF THE COUNTY ATTORNEY 2019 Budget Presentation March 19, 2018 Mauna Kea Trask County Attorney Matthew M. Bracken First Deputy County Attorney 2019 Budget Presentation Page 1 OFFICE OF THE COUNTY ATTORNEY I. Mission Statement The mission statement for the Office of the County Attorney (“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 of Kaua‘i on behalf of the people.” II. Vision To be an attorney’s Office that best understands and satisfies the legal needs, services, and policies of the County of Kauai. III. Fiscal Year 2018 Successes and Achievements The Office of the County Attorney has realized numerous successes and achievements during fiscal year 2017-2018. The Advice & Counsel Division continues to provide all necessary legal advice and review 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, Kaua‘i Emergency Management Agency (KEMA), Department of Finance (DOF), Procurement Division of the Finance Department, Economic Development, Fire Department, Housing Agency, Liquor Control, Parks & Recreation, Human Resources (HR), Planning Department, Police Department (KPD), Prosecuting Attorney, Public Works (DPW), Transportation Agency, and Water Department (DOW). Furthermore, the Advice & Counsel Division continues to provide essential legal guidance to avoid future litigation. Some of the successes and achievements of the Advice & Counsel Division are: 1) Maintaining high level of support for our departments within the limitations of our resources. 2) Drafted a new contract template for construction contracts. 3) Continued maintenance and updating of contract templates to standardize the following types of contracts and amendments: 1) goods; 2) goods (open ended); 3) services; 4) services (open ended); 5) professional services; 6) professional services amendment; 7) professional services (HRS 464 licensed design engineers, architects etc.); 8) professional services (464) amendments; 9) professional services legal; and 10) professional services legal amendments. 4) Provided continued training to Executive departments for important administrative affairs, e.g. liability, personnel management, and contracting. 5) Continued legal and administrative assistance to KPD regarding the future planned Kawaihau police station. 6) Continued HR training and guidance for executive departments to lessen and mitigate liability and avoid costly court cases. 7) Continued assistance to the Division of Purchasing, in its initiative to move the County towards greater use of electronic records and electronic signatures. 2019 Budget Presentation Page 2 8) Assisting DOW in adopting e-procurement which will lead to increased efficiency of water service and better maintenance of water infrastructure. 9) Assisted DOW in collecting delinquent accounts in order to ensure that water service is paid for equitably by the entire community. 10) Worked with Council and Administration to amend the county code to provide for legal avenues to allow for vending in the county’s public right-of-ways when appropriate, according to the needs of Kauai’s unique individual communities. 11) Assisted Planning Department in passing the General Plan. 12) Continued support of County efforts to site an Adolescent Drug Treatment Center on Kauai. 13) Continued to spearhead programs that support the native Hawaiian community and protect the host culture, heritage, and entitlements. 14) Continued to provide advice regarding the Endangered Species Act; updated and submitted a revised Participant Inclusion Plan for the Kauai Seabird Habitat Conservation Plan. 15) Continued to provide advice and training on Uniform Information Practices Act requests. 16) Drafted an “Advice & Counsel Division Treatise” that provides an outline and notes on frequent requests and legal analyses to improve service and efficiency in rendering legal advice, and provide a written form of institutional memory for future use of the office with posterity in mind. 17) Continued guidance and support to Executive departments in passing administrative rules to support their operations. The Litigation Division continues to manage the majority of the new litigation filed against the County, as well as filing necessary cases to protect the County’s interests in all of the various judicial and quasi-judicial venues, including Federal District Court, State Circuit Court, State District Court, State and Federal Appellate courts, and the various administrative agencies. Cases filed by the County include small claims actions for damage to the County vehicles and collection of delinquent account receivables. The Litigation Division’s hard work and dedication continues to realize substantial savings in special counsel costs. In addition, this year our Office procured new improved software designed for the legal field. This software is an improvement over the previous software we procured and it is also a less expensive platform prorated over time. This software will allow us to increase the efficiency of our litigation program. This past year, the Office reorganized by reclassifying two of our legal clerks to paralegal positions which further increased our efficiency and effectiveness without having to hire new bodies. Some of the successes and achievements of the Litigation Division are: 1) Continued reduction on the County’s reliance of special counsel. 2) Continued handling of all planning contested cases in house, and cancelled one of the remaining special counsel contracts. 3) Vigorous defense of the County in various litigation cases and increased cooperation with insurance carriers to best utilize our limited litigation resources in the most economic fashion. 4) Litigated and settled several long outstanding cases for a fraction of the demands made: a. Mediation demand $375,000, settled for $55,000 or 14% b. Mediation demand $190,000, settled for $18,000 or 9% c. Expert damages evaluation $662,000, settled for $56,000 or 8% 5) Ongoing collections of delinquent accounts receivables or other moneys owed to the County: $165,415 in cash payments and $48,810 in payment plans with promissory notes. 2019 Budget Presentation Page 3 IV. Fiscal Year 2018 Challenges Managing the County’s corporate (non-litigation) workflow processing is dependent on the ability of our Advice & Counsel Division diligently reviewing all legal matters that must go through our Office. The guidance that the division provides is essential to County operations. With three (3) attorneys advising the majority of the departments, these attorneys also have a very high caseload and their services are in high demand. This County cannot afford to have its legal team respond to non-legal or hypothetical legal inquiries. Historically many “legal” requests were departmental policy matters that were passed onto the Office of the County Attorney. The Advice & Counsel Division’s template and standardization initiatives as well as its focus on departmental training was our strategy to address these issues without asking for more money or personnel. The Office believes that the taxpayer’s money should be conservatively and wisely utilized; nonetheless every year our respective department’s legal needs increase. This is especially illustrated by the needs to our county wide service departments, such as the Department of Finance and the Department of Human Resources. The challenge for our office and all respective departments and agencies were determining what issues warranted priority over the others and also meeting all necessary deadlines. In regard to the litigation process, civil litigation cases can take several years to resolve. In today’s litigious society, lawsuits are unfortunately common; as such, each attorney’s caseload is increasing. As their caseloads increase there is a danger of overburdening our attorneys. The greatest challenge is ensuing that each litigation attorney has the necessary amount of time to devote to each case. It can take several months for an attorney to familiarize themselves with just one case and it’s essential that we provide the support our attorneys need to maintain their high caseloads. The Office of the County Attorney’s work load continues to increase in the future, and case management and corporate workflow processing will always be a challenge for this office’s staff and attorneys. V. Fiscal Year 2019 Goals and Objectives The County Attorney’s Office FY 2019 Goals and Objectives are simple. To keep improving the quality and level of our services both in the Litigation and Advice & Counsel Divisions. We believe that the current capacity of our office is providing the highest level of service that can be provided to the County. Still, with a new electronic case management system we may be able to realize more efficiencies at a better value and lower cost over time. Our main goal for FY 2019 is to increase the collection efforts and streamline the county’s foreclosure effort. By transferring a position from the Department of Finance and partially funding a new position, the County Attorney’s Office will be able to focus on working with Finance to collect all delinquent fees and taxes which will result in hundreds of thousands of dollar in monies owed. Furthermore, the county’s non-judicial foreclosure program is currently inefficient and title insurance companies across the state are no longer willing to provide title insurance for such sales. By proceeding to judicial foreclosures, the county will 2019 Budget Presentation Page 4 be able to collect its delinquent taxes faster as property taxes are primary liens via statute. And any remaining proceeds are addressed by the commissioner of the sale, saving the county potentially long and overly complex judicial proceedings related to the disbursement of extra funds. VI. Budget Overview FY 2018 FY 2019 $ + / - % + / - Salary and Wages 1,414,266 1,497,316 83,050 5.9% Benefits 785,964 741,747 -44,217 -5.6% Utilities 5,000 4,000 -1,000 -20.0% Vehicle/Equip, Lease 0 0 0 0.0% Operations 533,548 532,487 -1,061 -0.2% 2,738,778 2,775,550 36,772 1.3% 52% 29% 0% 0% 19% FY 2018 Operating Budget Salary and Wages Benefits Utilities Vehicle/Equip, Lease Operations 54%27% 0% 0%19% FY 2019 Operating Budget Salary and Wages Benefits Utilities Vehicle/Equip, Lease Operations 2019 Budget Presentation Page 5