Title
Staff Report for a City of San Leandro City Council Resolution to Authorize the City Manager to Execute Amendment No. 4 to a Consulting Services Agreement with Bertrand, Fox, Elliot, Osman & Wenzel for Legal Representation Associated with Tort Liability Claims and Litigation, increasing the contract by $972,279
Staffreport
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Staff recommends that the City Council approve Amendment No. 4 to a Legal Services Agreement with Bertrand, Fox, Elliot, Osman & Wenzel (BFEOW) to continue to provide legal representation services associated with tort liability and tort claims litigation for the City through June 30, 2021. Funding is available in the Self-Insurance Fund to cover the legal fees.
BACKGROUND
The City of San Leandro originally entered into a Legal Services Agreement with BFEOW on June 25, 2013 to provide contract tort litigation and claims services to the City. The original agreement was for $49,999. On November 3, 2014, the City entered into a new Agreement with BFEOW to provide legal services on tort claims and litigation on various issues for $100,000.00 and an end date of June 30, 2016. Since that time, the City has amended the contract with BFEOW three times totaling $1,885,000.
It is necessary to amend the contract with BFEOW to reflect the legal activities for the current fiscal year. The City’s Risk Manager retired in December 2020, and new staff members took over the responsibilities. Support from an outside legal firm will continue to benefit the City. Sufficient funds are included in the current year budget to cover legal fees.
Analysis
The Bertrand, Fox, Elliot, Osman & Wenzel law firm continues to provide excellent service on assigned tort claims and litigation; the firm charges reasonable hourly rates for high quality service. Due to these successful outcomes on litigated matters, staff requests, with the City Attorney’s approval, the continued use of Bertrand, Fox, Elliot, Osman & Wenzel’s legal services for a variety of risk management issues, tort litigation and claims.
Moreover, the City of San Leandro’s risk pool, California Joint Powers Risk Management Authority (CJPRMA), highly recommends BFEOW to defend the City in tort litigation due to its success rate, reasonable hourly rates, and experience, especially with other member cities. At present, the law firm manages 17 open tort claims and litigations for the City; it closed ten cases this year alone.
The City has reached the contractual limit of $1,100,000 as set forth in amendment #3-set to expire June 30, 2021-and needs appropriations authorized to conclude this fiscal year without service interruption. Therefore, staff requests approval of an Amendment No. 4 to the Agreement with BFEOW to utilize the firm’s services when approved by the City Attorney. The contract expires on June 30,2021, and with Amendment No. 4, will be for a total not to exceed amount of $2,072,279 going back to 2014 when the contract was first executed. Amendment #4 will increase the current contract by $972,279 through the end of Fiscal Year 2020-21. For Fiscal Year 2021-2022, staff will prepare and propose a new contract for BFEOW with an effective date that aligns with the next biennial budget cycle. Staff will prepare a separate staff report and resolution for that contract.
Previous Actions
• 2014-083: Authorizing an agreement with BFEOW (NTE $50K)
• 2015-155: Amendment #1 to BFEOW agreement (NTE $285K)
• 2016-020: Amendment #2 to BFEOW agreement (NTE $500K)
• 2018-032: Amendment #3 to BFEOW agreement (NTE $1.1M)
Fiscal Impacts
The Fiscal Year 2020-21 Self-Insurance Fund operating budget includes sufficient funding for tort claims litigation for the remainder of this fiscal year.
Budget Authority
The Fiscal Year 2020-2021 Self-Insurance Fund operating budget for General Liability legal fees reflects an appropriation of $1,032,135 in account 689-19-004-5110, which has sufficient funds to cover this contractual increase for legal services of tort claims and litigation for the remainder of this fiscal year.
ATTACHMENT(S)
Attachment(s) to Related Legislative Files
Attached to Resolution:
o Amendment #4 to CSA for BFEOW
PREPARED BY: Scott Koll, Financial Services Manager