Rosemead puts cap on legal fees (available in:
Downtown LA)
Date: Jan 13, 2008 23:45:57 PM CST
Rosemead puts cap on legal fees
Move comes after city billed $100,000 in 3 months
By Jennifer McLain, Staff Writer
Concerns about legal fees trail Rosemead's city attorney, Bonifacio Garcia.
Officials at several cities have complained about high bills, questionable charges and lack of city attorney experience.
Garcia's firm, Garcia, Calderon and Ruiz, represents Rosemead, Wasco, Garvey School District and served Arvin's planning commission until the city fired the attorneys in July.
Garcia defends the quality of his firm's work and its rates.
"We want the highest quality of lawyers," he said, "and we're willing to pay for them and so are our clients."
Garcia is relatively new to the city attorney's business. He spent the past 11 years representing Garvey School District. In his 26 years as a lawyer, his first city attorney job was in January for the city of Wasco, which is near Bakersfield.
Garcia's lack of experience was the cause for an increase in costs in Arvin, Wasco and Rosemead, officials said.
"People think an attorney is an attorney is an attorney," said Alan Christensen, interim city manager at Arvin. "But you wouldn't hire a research attorney to do litigation for you. Of course they could learn, but it will be on the city's dime."
In Rosemead, a May bill for $55,000 prompted the City Council on Tuesday to place a $30,000 cap on Garcia's contract....
Rosemead City Council members Gary Taylor and Margaret Clark said Garcia performed work that should be done by staff and that is another reason why his bills were so high.
Garcia was originally hired to represent Rosemead's redevelopment agency, city and housing authority. Two weeks ago, however, the council hired a separate attorney to represent the redevelopment agency and housing authority. Now, Garcia only represents the city.
In Arvin, Garcia was fired because of his high bills, city officials said. Garcia's firm represented the planning commission from November to July.
"The city did a financial review of their legal expenses, and based on that decided to let the legal firm Garcia, Calderon and Ruiz go," Christensen said.
Garcia, however, said his firm's departure was the result of political turmoil and came after former Arvin City Manager Enrique Ochoa resigned.
Arvin's financial records show that for eight months of legal work to oversee the planning commission, Garcia's firm charged nearly $50,000. Half of those charges came from two months alone.
The flat fee charged by Arvin's previous firm in 2005 was $105,000 for city attorney and planning commission representation. That included attendance at two council meetings per month. Garcia's contract required the attendance of one planning commission meeting a month.
Arvin city officials said they are also asking for a refund for work performed by attorney Eva Plaza, who charged a partner and associate rate of $225 per hour. She was not admitted to the California State Bar until July, records show, and Arvin officials said the city should have been charged accordingly.
In Wasco, the hiring of Garcia's firm prompted a grand jury investigation, which was released in July.
The Kern County grand jury alleges the Wasco City Council violated the state's open meeting law by deciding in secret to fire the city attorney and replace the firm with Garcia, Calderon and Ruiz....
San Gabriel Valley Tribune, September 4, 2007
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