Existing law allows the City Council to appoint a city attorney and to set the compensation of the city attorney. Under existing law, the city attorney is not required to be an employee of the City, but may be an independent attorney or law firm hired by the City Council. Existing law does not specify what budgetary or review process the City must follow with respect to the city attorney's office.

This measure would codify existing City of Pittsburg practice with respect to the city attorney's office, and would expressly give the elected City Council the authority to set standards and levels of legal services rendered to the City, to set budgetary and cost controls for such services and to maintain efficiency and effectiveness of all legal services and operations of the City. This measure would require the City Council to perform regular attorney performance reviews and to monitor work assignments and utilization of resources by the city attorney.

This measure would permit the City Council to either hire a full-time employee as city attorney or to contract for city attorney and other legal services and to specify maximum anticipated expenditures for legal services. The measure requires that the compensation paid to any individual attorney or law firm for providing legal services to the City be a matter of public record.

If enacted, this measure could only be repealed or amended by a vote of the people at a City election.

If both this Measure "T" and Measure "U" at this election pass:

• If this Measure "T" receives more "yes" votes than measure "U" then Measure "T" will take precedence over Measure "U" and no portion of Measure "U" will become effective.
• If Measure "U" receives more votes than this Measure "T", both measures will become effective except to the extent that any provision of Measure "T" is inconsistent with a provision of Measure "U", in which case the provisions of Measure "U" will take precedence and the applicable provisions of Measure "T" will not become effective.

Comparable cities which utilize full-time city attorneys, requiring full-time support staff, full-time office space, complete legal libraries and in-house administration, pay substantially more for legal services than the current on-call contract method used by Pittsburg.

Employing a contract firm that has several attorneys specializing in various aspects of municipal law such as labor relations, eminent domain and land use has saved the City a tremendous amount of money in outside counsel fees. In fact our current system has led to a 62% overall reduction in total legal costs over the last seven years. The quality of legal service the City has received from the current contract city attorney has been the best available. Many of the benefits the City derived from the recent power plant projects can be directly attributed to the knowledge, experience, and negotiating skills of the current city attorney.

With a proven track record of protecting the City's vital legal interest, while providing Pittsburg with substantial economic benefits, the current contract method of providing legal service is clearly the best solution for Pittsburg.

Lori G. Anzini, Mayor

Robert T. Lewis, Vice Mayor

Ronald S. Currie, Mayor (retired)

Federal D. Glover, Councilmember