City may look for outside legal help

Deirdre Newman

Despite an independent review recommending that the city keep its

legal work in-house, city leaders agreed Monday to evaluate whether

they would be better off employing outside legal counsel.

The independent review had suggested keeping the work in City Hall

because of the type and quantity of the workload and the level of

legal complexity.

But Mayor Gary Monahan initiated the idea of getting work

proposals from outside firms as well as a proposal from the city

attorney’s office so the council could compare.

“We will take those recommendations into consideration in trying

to look at apple versus apples -- what does our city’s in-house staff

have to offer versus an outside staff?” Monahan said.

Monahan has said the close examination of the city attorney’s

office is not related to the litigation the city faces from former

City Atty. Jerry Scheer. Scheer sued the city in September, and the

parties are trying to close a second settlement agreement.

Former Mayor Sandra Genis said she would like to see the legal

services stay in-house.

“Some of the cites with outside attorneys have a lot of

litigation,” said Genis, who now works as a consultant to other

cities. “I thought one of the jobs of the city attorney was to keep

you from getting sued.”

Councilman Chris Steel agreed, saying he would like to see Acting

City Atty. Tom Wood named city attorney. Wood served as the city

attorney from 1980 to 1989, left the office and then came back in

1999 as the assistant city attorney.

“I am not for going out and looking around,” Steel said. “I think

we spent too much time and money on this. I think we need to

stabilize this office.”

The council also approved the creation of a two-person committee

to work with staff members to evaluate the legal proposals the city

receives and make a recommendation to the full council.

Steel volunteered to be on that committee. But Monahan said Steel

was not eligible to serve on the committee because Steel had already

made up his mind about keeping the legal services in-house.

Steel denied that he had a conflict of interest.

“What’s the conflict of interest?” Steel asked. “[Monahan] is

apparently against Tom Wood, who is right there. Any conflict of

interest lays with somebody else.”

Monahan appointed himself and Councilwoman Libby Cowan to serve on

the committee.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at [email protected].