currently spend of professional services? two vendors? supervisor kim: external, nonprofit, legal, anything you are contracting out for your department? >> about $250,000. mainly they relate to support services, lexus nexus, messengers, legal support services, and the like. of course, there are times when we contract with outside counsel. some of that we paid directly out of our office. sometimes it comes out of other city department budgets. mostly it relates to legal support services and outside counsel. supervisor kim: it would be great to have a breakdown. they all sound alike were these services, but it would be helpful to get a sense of them, and we like to look a cost

effectiveness. >> just so you know, it might be helpful -- last year, we went through the budget process -- over the last couple of years, i always a few myself and our office as somewhat different from a lot of other departments. we do not have a lot of capital and fiscal products. so we try to really make sure that we are consolidating how we deal effectively with outside vendors services. for example, we put our lexis nexus services and renegotiated our rent at fox plaza to make sure we were minimizing the potential impact on the greatest capital that we have, and that is the people in the city attorney's office. i would be happy to show you the trend as well. i can show you what we renegotiated and where it came from and how we got to those numbers. supervisor kim: that is very

helpful. of course, your use of the general fund is relatively low compared to the overall budget, but these next two years, it is asking for an increase above what you usually do. in the rda, a completely dead. going from five attorneys down to two. you just talked to supervisor chu about consumer protection. i know this has come up through supervisor cohen, the one of my concerns is the backlog with dbi. that is a huge priority. we want to give a number of our very egregious lynn ward's in line with the code enforcement. -- landlords in line with the code enforcement. i am curious about capacity with that. >> i appreciate both of you taking interest in that.

that has been something that has been a priority. when i became city attorney, it was tough budgetary times. i doubled the size of my code enforcement union, because i thought it was important that we show the value that the city attorney's office can bring to people's lives each and every day. i put it under the rubric of consumer protection, and it had to do it code enforcement cases, many in your district and in supervisor cohen's district as well. the problem that we have is some of that word that we can do is something that we can directly take a stab at and after right away. there are other cases which have to go through the administrative process, exhaustive administrative remedies, have nov's issue for housing violations, building violations, and then they have to have them referred to our office. otherwise, we will get thrown

out right off the bat. unfortunately over the past several years, the backlog -- we were not taking cases referred to our office by the department of inspection. that has proven to be a real problem. i want to take some of that and put a fire under folks to make sure that we're getting cases referred to us. that goes into something a was talking about earlier with my consumer protection unit, because part of that has to do with exactly those type of cases. the more that i can develop those cases and have it be self sustaining and make sure we're making a difference in people's lives in the community, the more value you're going to see. that is something we can encapsulate within the pilot project. supervisor kim: that would be great. if we have the staff, i would love the resources to be put into that. those are certainly my question is for dbi when they come to us later, how their allocating the resources to inspection as well

as permitting. >> and you should know, when i bring those cases, some of them have a 17-200 component, so i am is suing in both the name of the city in the name of the people in california. supervisor kim: that is also good news. the last question i had is -- i noticed you are projecting increases from requests from police, fire, public works, and the board of supervisors. i know that we give you all a lot of work, but i also want to be cognizant of us working within our means as well. i am curious as to how we can control some of that. some of that we cannot help. when we are souter when the fire department is sued, those are things we need to respond to. i want to do as much work as possible, but i also want to be cognizant of how we impact this.

>> thank you for the question, supervisor. i want folks to have an understanding of something, and i know that, unfortunately, all of you are well to aware of it, and that is, especially tthose who have been here for a longer period of time. when i started, we did not have any of our clients really on a budget. so what we did over the course of the last several years -- from my perspective, you can see how we spend our money. but also, as a containment tool to make sure that we were all prioritizing the work that we need to do, i established budgets based on historical averages for all my clients, including the board of supervisors. so we can track, throughout the course of the year, how much we were spending on your behalf, and if we were getting near a limit of what you had

experienced over the average of the last five years or so, then i could come to you and say, supervisor, you're getting near your budget. it forces my attorneys to manage with their client -- with their clients and help prioritize, but it also helps you manage what should be a priority and not a priority. when we first started it, we established an hourly budget for all of you about 500 hours or so, roughly. i think in that particular year, we had to get a general fund cut of about 10%. that means that you guys lost 50 hours. you went down to 450. if we are living within our means, that means our office living within our means, but also helping you to live within your namemean spirit i think tht is an effective way to rationally manage their resources that you have and what the policy priorities are. we continue to do that, and hopefully my lawyers are keeping

all of you advised about the wherwhere you are at on a fairly regular basis with respect to the budget. that is something that i think it's been an invaluable tool. i have had discussions with some of you, and i will work with you. i do not want to compete you from doing your good work, and we will never do that. supervisor kim: i want to appreciate that the increase looks like it is only about $3.3 million in the next fiscal year. in the report, it said you expected increases from police, fire, and public works, along with the board of supervisors. is that kind of defense work? >> most of the work we do is defense worker within that general fund budget, that is not just about the advice we give to all of you, but every piece of police litigation. when the police department is

sued, that comes out of that, as with dpw. that is all paid in a defensive way to defend against suits. supervisor kim: thank you. >> thank you, supervisor. supervisor chu: thank you. supervisor wiener? supervisor wiener: thank you. i have two questions. one relates to the trial team. >> you are pursuing your self- interest here. supervisor wiener: exactly, retroactively. i am glad it came up. it is a signal of a good portion of what the office does. a lot of times in the public perception, we think of the more affirmative cases, a code enforcement, and of course, the board we work with the advice side of things. but the trial team is so much of what the office does, and it is something we do not have as much control over. we're getting sued by people who

want to sue us, and sometimes even the most baseless cases can cost the city an enormous amount of money to defend the city properly. and and we try not to pay out money in privileged cases because that sends a message and you will see the multiplication. so the cost benefit analysis for the trial team is very, it is not always as intuitive as it might be in other situations. i know that one thing -- when i was on the trial think, one thing we saw over time is there are fewer legal assistance and legal secretaries as there used to be. and understanding that we all, you know, times are tough, and we have to be lean and mean. i also know that for trial attorneys, having strong secretarial and legal assistants support can mean the difference between a successful case and not. can you talk about, not

necessarily specific to this budget, but how you see that presidio in the future? i did ask about this last year -- how you see this preceding in the future? i did ask about this last year. >> thank you. i agree with the 100%. we have 4,000 claims per year on average, and many of those they evolve into litigation. the trial team worked incredibly hard to defend the taxpayers of the city and county of san francisco, and i appreciate your sensitivity to it. because when you were a trial team member, you're one of the best, and making sure we manage that balance and protect the public. i appreciate your attention to that, supervisor, and i know you are well aware of the challenges. over the course of the last year, you are correct, there was an inordinate number of vacancies that occur at the support staff level, whether it be legal assistance, paralegals,

or secretarial. and that has been an ongoing dialogue that i have been having with the mayor's office with respect to giving us the ability to fill those positions, and i want to compliment them. the have been very receptive. we have been able to move forward on filling most, if not all, of those vacancies and support staff level. i think you're going to see the cavalry coming in to make sure that the trial team is getting that level of support that perhaps they have not had over the last couple of years as we went to the tough budgetary times. but the mayor's office has been very receptive recently and we're moving forward on filling those vacancies. that will make a lawyer's job much easier. it will allow us to be much more efficient and to ensure we're protecting the public to a greater degree than we have been able to. supervisor wiener: thank you. and thank you to the mayor for

understanding that. and to really stressed that if we allow the trial team atrophy, whether at the lawyer level or the support level, we will start seeing losses in cases that we should not lose and seeing settlements in cases we should not settle. it is something that will end up costing us more over time. thank you. the second thing i want to ask related to land use, i want to compliment the ladies team which provides a lot of support to the board because we do so much land use work -- i want to compliment the land use steam. it seems like more and more members of the land use -- a deputies, city attorneys, are getting drawn extensively into ceqa litigation. we see times when you're working with the deputy city attorney on the land use steam, and suddenly they are unavailable because of the plethora of ceqa cases that we get hit with. and you know, some of which may

possibly -- many of which are completely frivolous. we're seeing more and more of this, it seems like every controversial land-use project as a ceqa appeal to the board, and then there is the ensuing litigation that consumes city attorney resources, and then it gets billed to departments. the planning department sometimes ends up absorbing ceqa litigation costs. we're trying to go through a ceqa reform process at the state level, but i think it is really important for people to understand the cost of this incessant ceqa litigation in cases that are maybe marginal at best. i just wanted to see your perspective. >> yeah, we have seen an increase in its ceqa litigation over the course of the past several years. the planning department has increased its work order for this type of work. it has been difficult with

mandatory furloughs and the like over the course of the last several years. i know we have talked about this. i think you will see an improvement in that because of a change in the budget situation. our lawyers will be more available than they have been recently. but the planning department, we have been in consultation with them, and they have recognized this and there's no doubt that we have seen an increase in that type of work. supervisor wiener: and i know that have increased their work order. i think -- i hate the fact that they have to increase the work order. this is sort of commentary on ceqa that comes up to the city attorney's office. but i would rather them spend that money on proactive planning efforts rather than defending against a ceqa lawsuit in every controversial land use case. >> i understand agree. ultimately, that will lead to good community planning, if we

have people actually planning and working with the community on a develop a plan that is sensitive to neighborhood needs. we have had a discussion about ceqa reform at the state level, and i know you have been a leader in that. you will have our full support, but there's absolutely no doubt that we do see things percolate up in the litigation process, which we had not seen less met -- a very much until the last several years. supervisor chu: thank you. i want to make an announcement. we will be taking a quick break of the budget committee after the city attorney's budget. i know there are a number of departments. we will take about a half an hour break after the city attorney's presentation. supervisor cohen? supervisor cohen: thank you. i want to follow up on a couple of questions that supervisor kim raised earlier with regard to code enforcement. you said you increase your code enforcement team.

from what? >> this is about 10 years ago, and a double that. i would say it was 95 to six range in we went to 10 to 12. -- i would say it went from the five to six range. and there has to be a referral process. there are certain cases that are coded for some cases that do not have to go through the administrative process, and my office just takes them. there are other cases where you have a notice of violation on a have the ability issue or housing issue that you have to exhaust your administrative remedies before a lawsuit can be filed. so we rely on the department of building writ -- building inspection tour for those cases to us before we can file legation on those cases. that is the law. we have seen a decrease in the number of cases over the last several years that have either

gone through the nov process are who have been referred to our office for handling. supervisor chu: thank you, supervisor cohen. a few quick follow-up questions. there are a number of increases that are significant with your department, and some of these are probably as a result of increases in cases or ceqa litigation and other things happening within the department. the building inspection and city planning, for example, have both seen 400,000 roughly. can you go through them quickly? city planning is the largest one. >> much of it is ceqa-related. supervisor chu: the mayor's office cdbg as an increase of $400,000. that looks like a new one. then there is another allocation of almost $1 million, $984,000

in working order recovery from something called community development. >> both of those are redevelopment-related. supervisor chu: ok, so both of those are redevelopment-related rec and park is going up by $400,000. >> yes, that is litigation related. historically, rec and park has been an active user of our services and have been very, very supportive, and i think we have had supplementals from them in the past. but this is to more accurately reflect the budgetary process and what our needs have historically been and what we think we have coming down the pike, but this is a litigation- related. supervisor chu: ok. this might be a follow-up

question to the department after words. for many of your work orders, i see that there's some increases in some drops in work orders announced, some related to ceqa or some looking at the budgets were they were not accurately reflected in the past. there are also a lot of departments that are seeing the same work order. i am curious about that, given the fact that we know that expenses for attorneys are going up, everybody's expenses are going up with health care, retirement, and other things. some of these are staying at the same exact level. i wanted to find out some more about that. for that, i would be habitat and offline conversation. >> yeah, we will have to do that, supervisor. supervisor chu: with regard to language taxes, there was a question provided from our office to all departments -- regards dealing with access. i believe the attorney is not a tier one language access

department. but there are claims that touch upon the city attorney's office. for folks who are monolingual, may have limited english speaking abilities, what is the city attorney's ability to serve those individuals? >> all those documents are put out in -- how many? instructions for all our forms will directly interact with the public in five different languages, supervisor. supervisor chu: when people call into your office to request information, do you use a language line? >> yes, we have specified individuals in our office who can speak a variety of languages, and we refer them to those individuals. supervisor chu: quickly, i know you said there were a number of items you are in agreement with the budget analyst. can you indicate which ones those were? >> all of them except for that one area that i highly did we were in disagreement with. supervisor chu: so all of them

except for the attorney position? >> correct. supervisor chu: thank you. budget analyst report. mr. rose, a community the area where there is disagreement when you go through the report? >> madam chair, members of the committee, in general, for all departments we have not yet finalized agreements or disagreements, in general. so we report to you today that most of these recommendations, and there are some exceptions, are preliminary in nature, and we work with the departments and report back next week. with respect to the city attorney, our recommended reductions3 total reductions69 -- $369,000 plus, and it would still allow an increase of 3.8% in the department's 2012-2013

budget. then our recommendations totaled $383,506 for 2013-2014. those recommendations are ongoing savings and would still allow an increase of 4% for the budget. the disagreement as noted are the positions that are shown on page 64 of our report, and we will work with the department and report back to you next week. supervisor chu: thank you. in terms of page 65, the recommendations, the materials supplies budget, recovery, and attrition levels, those are the areas that the department and a great -- indicated that they are in agreement with you, is that correct? >> that is correct. >> ok. supervisor chu: thank you to the

city attorney. >> thank you. supervisor chu: colleagues, if there are no questions at this time, i wonder if we might tentatively take action on the areas where there is agreement? i think that would be helpful to the comptroller's office concerts to process some of these recommendations. can we entertain a motion to accept the budget and those recommendations were there are agreement, and those are indicated on page 65? ok, we have that motion. without objection. to the city attorney, thank you very much for your presentation. we will see you back next week. in terms of offline conversations, i would definitely like more affirmation about the work order levels. in the summer program information in terms of the number of positions, that would be helpful. additional information on the consumer protection unit. finally, for supervisor kim, in terms of the contractual services, that level of information. >> we can get all of that. supervisor chu: colleagues, why

don't we take a quick 30-minute recess? thank you.