She Works Hard for the Money

A combination of a slow news week and lots of work have made me a bit weary lately, but in today's Bible, there's an article on the City attorney and her request for more money for lawsuits, lawsuits, lawsuits. Funny thing is that it instantly reminded me of my favorite Donna Summer song. I guess I shouldn't find it funny that in a Newport Beach with a spend happy (tomorrow's money of course) City Council and staff, the City Attorney has asked for an additional $295k, on top of the normal $160k, to cover all the outside legal expenses that the City has had to cover. With the explanation that was presented in the paper, I can see where all $450,000 had to go. After all, those OUTSIDE attorneys (six different firms, mind you) can get damn expensive. Let's do some math, let's go with the assumption that we used a $500/hour attorney (which is an expensive guess). The $450k was for 900 hours of that attorney's time. Working 24 hours a day, every day, that is 37.5 full days worth of work. Let 's see, we sued Irvine over their over development plans (Irvine blinked and it quickly ended), the Environmental report over the General Plan Update was challenged (that ended quickly too) and Greenlight sued over the ballot description (dropped quickly too). Did each one merit 300 hours each? Not too shabby. Actually, quite a nice gig if you can get it, and I'm sure many attorneys are probably clamoring at getting it. In fact, last year, I had a conversation with one of those outside attorneys who was supporting an incumbent City Council member for re-election specifically because of that gravy train. And that attorney doesn't even bill $500/hour. This raises all kinds of questions for me and I don't know where to start. First, if we need 900+ hours of outside attorneys, why do we have the City Attorney and two Assistant City Attorneys? Yes, I can see what the description says, but "Perhaps a more familiar and obvious role of the City Attorney is to appear in appear in court on behalf of the City. The City Attorney represents the City in both criminal and civil matters." Hmmm. And then, "Historically, the City has utilized outside law firms to handle matters such as eminent domain, police civil rights issues and various bond offerings." Ok, maybe I'm reading these descriptions wrong because I don't know if any of the three lawsuits had to do with what outside attorneys normally handled. Plus, I don't think that half mil for outside attorneys doesn't include our City Attorney and two Assistant City Attorney's costs, benefits, pension, etc. I would guess that the legal fees for the 2006/2007 will hit one cool million. I should have gone to law school. Anyway, with the future legal battles with Irvine over development (you KNOW that Irvine will keep finding ways to fight Newport Beach about EVERYTHING), with the lawsuits involving the Sober Living Homes future regulations, and the upcoming battle over John Wayne's soon-to-be expiring Settlement Agreements, I disagree that this is a unique request. This is something, left unchecked, will continue to build and build. And then just wait until we start really messing around with the City Hall location...