"City Attorney" is a Lucrative Post

For years, Geneva operated much the way most other cities our size did-- with a part-time city attorney. The City Charter states the City Attorney is “attorney and counsel” for the City Council, the Mayor, the City Manager, and all departments, officers, boards, commissions, and agencies of the City. The principal role of the City Attorney is to represent and defend the interests of the City and to “upon request, furnish them [the above mentioned municipal entities] with a written opinion on any question of law involving their respective powers and duties.” For better or for worse, the capacity to issue legal opinion on all matters and situations, large and small, gives the City Attorney enormous power to shape policy and actions of the City.

Back in January, 2004, when the current council began its just ending four-year term, they quickly rewarded their key administrators, vesting the City Manager into the retiree health insurance system, and making the City Attorney position full-time, or, more importantly, granting him a full-time salary. For the City Manager and City Attorney votes, Augustine dissented and was the only member of Council to vote against them both. Capraro was not yet on Council.

At the time, a survey of other communities revealed most cities followed one of two arrangements: either the city had a part-time attorney (not benefits eligible) who retained a private practice and used an outside legal firm for specialized work; or the city had a full time attorney (or more than one) who had a ‘sole client’ relationship with the municipality. That means that the city supplied the office, secretary, salary, and benefits in exchange for the exclusive services of the attorney. In other words, if you were full-time for your city, you could not maintain a private practice.

Like many other back room deals made under the previous administration, the Geneva City Council ignored the best practices of other communities and created a hybrid position for the sitting attorney. They decided that the attorney would be considered full-time, would receive full- benefits, a secretary, and some office expenses, but would not be required to give up private practice or move his offices into city hall. While this may be the ‘best of both worlds’ for whomever occupies the full time post, it’s the worst of both worlds for city government.

The City Attorney position is extremely well paid for the level of service rendered. For 2008, the City Attorney’s office is budgeted for a total of $148,950, broken down as follows:

Attorney salary: $82, 807
Secretary salary: 22, 412
Unallocated
2008 salary? 5,318
Retirement: 10,191
Health insurance: 14,323
Social security: 8,478
Phone, office,
travel, etc. 4,309
TOTAL $148,950

And buried somewhere else in the budget, there are still other moneys set aside for fees paid for ‘outside attorneys’ who are used for special projects or, perhaps, in theory, when there is a conflict of interest between the city attorney’s public client (the City) and private clients.

So, even though the position was made full time (in another late-night, post-back-room vote with hardly a word of public discussion) City Council allowed the City Attorney to maintain a private practice. If the City Attorney is a full-time position, how can there be any time in the work day for private practice? In addition, the City Attorney is the attorney for the City of Geneva Industrial Development Agency (IDA), which is a separate entity from the City of Geneva. Again, if the City Attorney is full-time, how can there be any time in the work day for the IDA? And if the City Attorney is representing both the City and the IDA, how are the conflicts of interest resolved? It is not clear if and how the City Attorney is compensated for work performed for the IDA. The City receives money from the IDA, but it is not earmarked for legal services. And council is only occasionally informed if and when outside counsel is retained for particular matters (such as the IDA truck deal--click here to read our post on that issue).

By comparison, the City of Canandaigua Attorney’s office (corporation counsel) is budgeted for $94, 220, broken down as follows:

Salaries $69, 020
Social Security 5,280
Supplies 500
Professional
Services:
Labor attorney 5,000
Special 10,000
Other 4,420
TOTAL $94,220
[This information is taken from the Canandaigua budget, available for your review here]

Canandaigua doesn’t pay for the attorney’s secretary or law office. There is a clear policy for avoiding conflict of interest in client representation.

Looking to our east, Auburn retains two full time attorneys, one full time confidential secretary for those attorneys and a part time office worker. Their total ‘corporation counsel’ budget is $243,224. For $100,000 more than Geneva, they have two additional staff people and again, no conflicts of interest!

So what should Geneva do? We believe that Geneva should clean up its act. Good government requires that conflicts of interest be avoided. What we have is an institutionalized tension. Either the attorney post should be legitimately full-time, and the City of Geneva should be the attorney’s sole client, or the post should be returned to part-time and all private clients should be disclosed to Council.