12/15/2009 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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~ ~~Q ~~ and foremost task as Law D' ctor was to establish a more permanent structure for the Law Department-in the li ely event that less talented, less passionate, less committed law directors headed the Department in the future. Thus, I urged Council in 2002 to create everal full-time positions in the Law Department. I did this, not so much to protect competent professional employees--although that is a worthy goal but more so to protect and preserve institutional memory in the Law Department over the years, so that the wheel would not have to be reinvented every time a new law director was elected. ~L ;~;~"'~ I also endeavored to take a number of other steps to institutionalize th Law Department. I urged t1~ City,~to make office space available at City Ha~for the Law Department. While space was not available during my first term, in aoo6, Mayor O'Grady made such space available to the Department. Again, I thank him for making .that permanentspace for the Law Department.at City-Hall a reality. The thought with. having permanent law offices at City Hall was that, whenever any City Hall official had a need for legal advice or guidance, there would almost always be a legal presence on site to provide that advice or guidance as soon as possible. .,+~ Other institutionalizing changes p~r~wrd were the following. With the help of IT, a Law Department webpage was created on the City's website. There, helpful information relating to the operations of the Law Department was posted for City officials as well as the general public to see. Things like a contracts procedure manual-setting forth what procedures must be followed by th Ci v ment in legally contracting fora ood or service; formal legal opinions t ° ~"~~ de variety of issues of importat~o the operations of the City government; annual reports of the Law Department ' the functions of the Law Department and provid j yearly s 'cs on things such as ~ ;traffic and criminal prosecutions; monies collected; budge'~e~`c~ and other Law Department information such as explanation of the Fair I-l`ousing program and the Department's Victims of Crime program. At my request, City Coun i~t als~ blished an RFP process for personal service t Burin m two terms to contractuall secure contracts, and I followed the new process g y y through a fair and unbiased review the services of outside counsel in several specialized areas of law. The thought was that, if a need arose for such services, it might well arise very quickly, and the City would be best served if outside counsel were immediately available to serve when the legal emer ency hit. New contract form~as for different types of~expenditures we~re~d and posted on the City s V:Drive for all city officials to use. I also attempted to create some new boundaries between the Law Department and other Departments of the City in areas in which the Law Department had historically provided much guidance, but which seemed to me to .not be part of the Charter's central mission of the Law Department-to serve as Iegal advisor and to represent the City in court. Thus, during my first term I urged the Administration and Council to seek an outside labor negotiator to represent the City, as employer, in labor negotiations, believing that not only was labor negotiations not part of the charter duties of the Law Director, but