Speaker 2: Adoption of resolution approving a workforce change in the city attorney's office to create a new classification. Chief Assistant City Attorney and one position. Chief Assistant City Attorney and amend amending executive management salary schedule to add the classification of Chief Assistant City Attorney effective October 13, 2018.
Speaker 0: Okay. And should we hear our speakers first so we hear what their concerns are. Okay, who's there? Who are speakers?
Speaker 2: Steve Lawson and Ken Peterson.
Speaker 0: Okay. So, Mr. Slauson, I heard your name first. Why don't you come first and then I see Mr. Peterson. You'll be next. Okay.
Speaker 4: Good evening, mayor. Old Growth Council members. I'm Steve Johnson live on Otis Drive. I respectfully request you table this resolution at this time. There has been no economic justification for adding this position to the city of Alameda. The public is in the dark. The public has a right to know exactly why we need an extra city attorney, what their duties might be. And I think it's a reasonable request. So respectfully, request again, table of the resolution this time and present that information to the public. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Mr. Sloss and Mr. Peterson.
Speaker 4: Good evening, Madam Mayor. Council staff. Nice to see you again. This reminds me the city attorney when Janet Curran first arrived and I was noticing that the city attorney's staff was increasing to, I think, seven employees. It reminded me of the time when Carter Chase Stroud was city attorney and he operated the city attorney's office and all the business by himself with assistant oh one quirk. We now proposed to have a city attorney staff of 11, including seven full time attorneys. This reminds me of the of the question of the budget. I just happened to look this evening, and I noticed that within the next couple of years, the cash reserves for this city will be down below $1 million. That is a drop from over $30 million in just a few years ago and a great deal lower than the level which the council had decided be the minimum cash reserve necessary to keep this city going. And so we should. I'm not going to blame this, Mr. Shad. He just arrived, you know. But you. You're following a long history of of ballooning costs with the city attorney's office and in other areas of city staff as well. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. So we've heard from public speakers. I'd like to ask the city attorney, even Sharon, if he could speak to this particular request.
Speaker 8: Of course, Madam Mayor, members of the council, I'm happy to provide an explanation to the public. This request to the council is actually probably will save the city significant costs in the short run and the long run, though, the city attorney's office is currently staff with the number of people that are indicated in the staff report. One of the attorneys happens to be a very long time contract attorney with the city of Alameda and at one point served as the city's interim city attorney. And over time, he has been invaluable to the office of the city attorney. However, as a contract attorney, the hourly rates that the city must pay is quite extensive. It is over $200 an hour, even though that is actually quite reasonable for outside counsel. General outside council rates are well in excess of that. If we brought this position in-house, we could probably achieve either budget neutral or budget savings immediately and over the long run. And therefore, this request does not seek to add additional staff but reorganize the city attorney's office in a way that achieves budget neutral or budget savings in the immediate run, in the long run. And I'm happy to answer any questions.
Speaker 0: And thank you, Mr. Chan. And could I ask the city manager to just discuss or just touch on the budget implications of this request? So and he does that really well because I didn't give him any heads up, but he knows this stuff in his sleep.
Speaker 4: So as I understand with this particular position, as as even as has said, this position has been a contract position. And so as it's currently structured, I think it's halftime. So about what it's going to be.
Speaker 8: I think probably, though, Mr. Walsh's hours have fluctuated over time. It's not. Our office intends to at least while Mr. Walsh is present, fill it under, fill the position that the council authorizes at a half time level.
Speaker 4: So so with that, based on what is currently being paid on the contract basis, there will be a savings at least in the near term or at least in the next year. I can't speak towards the future, but definitely in the near term, in the next year. As far as the 1 million, I'm not sure where that number comes from. We have in our next two years, we shall balance budgets in the next two years for the general fund in particular. And there are some future financial projections we're looking at that a lot of that has to do with things such as the pensions and other driving costs towards the city. So I'll relook at that. I don't remember that million dollars, but it might be in a future forecast over a five year projection.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you both. So what we have before us is a resolution. We're being asked to adopt a resolution approving a workforce change in city attorney's office to create this new classification. As the city clerk, which was earlier, do I have a motion to adopt this resolution?
Speaker 7: Madam Mayor.
Speaker 0: Madam? Yes, I remember Vella and I didn't ask for council comment. Okay.
Speaker 7: I'm prepared to make a motion, but I also wanted to state that this. Was a regular agenda item. We didn't just add this to our consent calendar. This was a regularly agenda item that was subject to council discussion and deliberation here in open session at a previous meeting. So whenever we make these decisions, that's that's typically the structure. And as part of that, the public is able to weigh in at that time when it's agenda ized and it was published. I don't think there was any Sunshine Ordinance issues with it or Brown Act issue. So it was it was publicly available for comment.
Speaker 0: Well, and there's there's also a staff report here that that explains the the changes and the the financial implications.
Speaker 7: And so with that, I'll make a motion. Madam Mayor.
Speaker 0: Okay. Any other council comments? I have a motion to have a second. Have a motion is second all in favor? I any opposed you abstain. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Okay. With that, we move to the regular agenda.
Speaker 2: Item six Adoption of resolutions appointing Adam Assessor, Tim Karas, David MC, Remy Motueka, Mike Rose, Lynn Fettig and Deb Severns as members of the Economic Development Advisory Panel.
Adoption of Resolution Approving a Workforce Change in the City Attorney’s Office to Create a New Classification, Chief Assistant City Attorney; Add One Position, Chief Assistant City Attorney; and Amend the Executive Management (EXME) Salary Schedule to Add the Classification of Chief Assistant City Attorney, Effective October 13, 2019. (Human Resources 2510).