ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
MEETING DATE: June 11, 2025 AGENDA CATEGORY: Consent - Agreements TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council
FROM: Matthew S. Collom, Deputy City Attorney
DATE: May 30, 2025
SUBJECT: Agreement with Duane Morris (800,000)
for legal services through fiscal year 2025/2026 for water related cases
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends approval of the Agreement.
BACKGROUND:
Since 1999, the City Attorney’s Office (“CAO”) has outsourced water related case, issues, and matters to the law firm of Duane Morris, LLP with Partner Colin Pearce (“Duane Morris”) as the primary attorney.
These issues are highly specialized ; as such, the CAO believes it is in the City’s best interest to continue this relationship for fiscal year 2025/2026.
City’s prior agreement with Duane Morris, titled Agreement No. 2 4-214, was executed in 202 4 and remained in effect until the conclusion of FY 2024/2025. That Agreement provides for a flat fee of One Million Dollars and No Cents ($1,000,000), which historically comes out of the Water Department budget and covers a wide range of water matters and litigation.
The proposed agreement before the Council is for Eight Hundred Thousand Dollars and No Cents ($800,000) and represents a savings of $200,000 year over year.
The Agreement currently before the Council is largely identical to the one last year and staff recommends Council approval.
ATTACHMENTS:
Agreement