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Legal Services Analysis and Report City of San Leandro <br />February 2013 Municipal Resource Group <br /> <br /> <br /> 24 <br />nature of any specialized legal issues that may arise. The data from the benchmark cities is <br />not very revealing or relevant to determining the average amount of outside counsel costs <br />among those cities. Although all of the benchmark cities use some outside counsel, the <br />budgeted costs for outside counsel are typically combined with budgets for third party <br />administrators, claims costs and other departmental costs, and these amounts vary widely <br />from City to City. Depending on the type and nature of the specialized services, outside legal <br />counsel hourly rates for public agency services can range from $200 to $400 per/hour. In <br />the absence of verifiable data, an estimate of $50,000 to $150,000 per year is stated here for <br />the purpose of this analysis <br /> Table III‐5 summarizes the projected budget for an in‐house City Attorney Office, <br />based on the assumptions and data described in this Chapter. <br /> <br />Table III‐5: In‐House City Attorney Budget <br />Personnel costs $1,016,000 <br />Non‐personnel costs$ 39,000 <br />Outside counsel/consultants for specialized legal work and services $ 50,000 to $150,000 <br />Total $1,105,000 to $1,205,000 <br />Source: MRG <br /> <br /> The costs in Table III‐5 do not include “legacy” costs, such as Other Post <br />Employment Benefit costs for health insurance premiums. <br /> As mentioned above, these costs are for General City Attorney services only. They <br />do not include litigation prosecution and defense costs. The analysis assumes that the City <br />would continue to use outside counsel for most litigation purposes, as is the case in most of <br />the benchmark cities. The budget also does not include risk management services, which <br />are currently included in the San Leandro Finance Department budget, or workers <br />compensation administration, which is included in the Human Resource Department <br />budget. <br /> Transitioning to in‐house City Attorney services would also involve certain startup <br />costs, such as recruitment, one‐time purchase of equipment and furniture, law office <br />materials, books and supplies, and other start‐up expenses. While an actual amount is <br />unknown, the City should consider a one‐time cost of at least $50,000. <br /> It is again noted that most cities with in‐house City Attorney services have included <br />risk management in the City Attorney Office, to coordinate claims processing, contractual