NOTICE AND CALL OF A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PARLIER
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PARLIER
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, pursuant to Parlier Municipal Code Section 2.04.110 and the incorporated "Roberts Rules of Order" and Government Code §54956, that a special meeting of the City Council of the City of Parlier is hereby called to be held on June 17, 2024, commencing at 4:30 P.M. in the City Council Chambers at 1100 E. Parlier Avenue, Parlier, CA 93648 for the purpose of discussing the following matter:
REGULAR BUSINESS:
1. SUBJECT: Consideration and Necessary Action on Approval of agreement for Special legal Services with Liebert, Cassidy and Whitmore.
RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends Council consider approving the agreement for Special Legal Services with Liebert, Cassidy and Whitmore.
No other business shall be discussed or conducted at the Special Meeting. The public will be provided with an opportunity to comment on the item on the special agenda. This call of a special meeting is by majority of the City Council as follows:
Dated: June 1418 , 2024
By:
Diego Garza, Council Member
Dated: Jum 14 _, 2024
By: shen Solar
Signature
(ethy Solonio concleomen
Print Name and Title
Dated. June 14 - 2024
By anita Moona.
(signature
Juanita Molina Council member
Print Name and Title
OF PARL CITY COUNCIL OF PARLIER
SPECIAL MEETING
This meeting of the City of Parlier City Council is live streamed and may be accessed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJs3y/cM9NWQGLdwpBCmoAQ DATE: MONDAY, JUNE 17, 2024
TIME: 4:30 PM
PLACE: Parlier City Hall
1100 E. Parlier Avenue
Parlier, CA 93648
CALL TO ORDER/WELCOME:
Roll Call: Mayor Alma M. Beltran, Mayor Pro tem Sabrina Rodriguez, Council member Juanita "Janie" Molina, Council member Diego Garza, Council member Cathryn "Kathy" Solorio, City Clerk Dorothy Garza and Treasurer Michelle Lopez.
FLAG SALUTE: Mayor Alma M. Beltran
INVOCATION:
ADDITIONS/DELETIONS:
REGULAR BUSINESS:
1. SUBJECT: Consideration and Necessary Action on Approval of agreement for Special legal Services with Liebert, Cassidy and Whitmore.
RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends Council consider approving the agreement for Special Legal Services with Liebert, Cassidy and Whitmore.
ADJOURNMENT
ADA NOTICE
In compliance with the American with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this meeting, please contact the City Clerk at (559) 646-3545 ext. 227. Notification 48 hours prior to the meeting will enable the city to make arrangements to ensure accessibility to this meeting.
DOCUMENTS
Any writings or documents provided to a majority of the City Council regarding any item on this agenda will be made available for public inspection at the front counter at City Hall located at 1100 East Parlier Avenue, Parlier, CA during normal business hours. In addition, most documents are posted on the city's website at www.parlier.ca.us.
AGREEMENT FOR SPECIAL SERVICES
This Agreement is entered into between the law firm of LIEBERT CASSIDY WHITMORE, A Professional Corporation ("Attorney" or "LCW"), and the CITY OF PARLIER ("'City").
Conditions
This Agreement will not take effect, and Attorney will have no obligation to provide services, until City returns a properly signed and executed copy of this Agreement.
2. Attorney's Services
Attorney agrees to provide City with consulting, representational and legal services pertaining to employment relations matters, including representation in negotiations and in administrative and court proceedings, as requested by City or otherwise required by law.
Fees, Costs, Expenses
City agrees to pay Attorney the sums billed monthly for time spent by Attorney in providing the services, including reasonable travel time.
The current range of hourly rates for Attorney time is from Two Hundred Seventy to Four Hundred Fifty Dollars ($270.00 - $450.00). See Schedule I for a full Fee Schedule. LCW reviews its hourly rates on an annual basis and, if appropriate, adjusts them effective July 1. LCW will provide the City with written notification of any adjustment in the range of rates and shall become effective only upon the approval of the City. LCW bills its time in minimum units of one-tenth of an hour. 9612838 5 LC001-009 1
For Litigation Matters
See Schedule Il attached for a description of LCW's Litigation and EDiscovery Management.
Other Expenses
City agrees to reimburse LCW for necessary costs and expenses incurred by LCW on behalf of City. LCW bills photocopying charges at Fifteen Cents ($0.15) per page.
See Schedule I attached.
Payment by City against monthly billings is due upon receipt of statements, and is considered delinquent if payment is not received within thirty (30) days of the date of the invoice.
Professional Liability Insurance
The California Business & Professions Code requires us to inform you whether we maintain errors and omissions insurance coverage applicable to the services to be rendered to you. We hereby confirm that the firm does maintain such insurance coverage.
5. Arbitration of Professional Liability or Other Claims Disputes. If a dispute between City and Attorney arises over fees charged for services, the controversy will be submitted to binding arbitration in accordance with the rules of the California State Bar Fee Arbitration Program, set forth in California Business and Professions Code, sections 6200 through 6206. The arbitrator or arbitration panel shall have the authority to award to the prevailing party attorneys' fees, costs and interest incurred. Any arbitration award may be served by mail upon either side and personal service shall not be required.
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If a dispute arises between City and Attorney over any other aspect of the attorney-client relationship, including, without limitation, a claim for breach of professional duty, that dispute will also be resolved by arbitration. It is understood that any dispute as to any alleged breach of professional duty (that is, as to whether any legal services rendered under this agreement were allegedly unnecessary, unauthorized, omitted entirely, or were improperly, negligently or incompetently rendered) will be determined by submission to arbitration as provided by California law, and not by a lawsuit or resort to court process except as California law provides for judicial review of arbitration proceedings. Both parties to this agreement, by entering into it, are giving up their constitutional right to have any such dispute decided in a court of law before a jury, and instead are accepting the use of arbitration. Each party is to bear its own attorney's fees and costs.
6. File Retention
After our services conclude, Attorney will, upon City's request, deliver the file for the matter to City, along with any funds or property of City's in our possession. If City requests the file for the matter, Attorney will retain a copy of the file at the City's expense. If City does not request the file for this matter, we will retain it for a period of seven (7) years after this matter is closed. If City does not request delivery of the file for this matter before the end of the seven (7) year period, we will have no further obligation to retain the file and may, at our discretion, destroy it without further notice to City. At any point during the seven (7) year period, City may request delivery of the file. 9612838.5 L.C001-009 3
Assignment
This Agreement is not assignable without the written consent of City.
Independent Contractor
It is understood and agreed that Attorney, while engaged in performing the terms of this Agreement, is an independent contractor and not an employee of City.
Authority
The signators to this Agreement represent that they hold the positions set forth below their signatures, and that they are authorized to execute this Agreement on behalf of their respective parties and to bind their respective parties hereto.
10. Term
This Agreement is effective June 11, 2024, ongoing and may be modified by mutual agreement of the parties. This agreement shall be terminable by either party upon thirty (30) days written notice.
LIEBERT CASSIDY WHITMORE, CITY OF PARLIER
A Professional Corporation
By: By:
Name: Name:
Title: Title:
Date: Date:
9612838.5 LC001-009 4
SCHEDULE I - FEES & COSTS
Hourly Rates (As of Agreement Effective Date)
Partners $450.00
Senior Counsel $375.00
Associates $270.00 - $355.00
Labor Relations/HR Consultant $290.00
Classification & Compensation Consultant $210.00
Paralegals $150.00
E- Discovery Specialists $175.00
Law Clerks $150.00 - $185.00
COSTS
1. Photocopies $0.15 per copy
9612838.5 LC001-009 5
SCHEDULE II
LCW LITIGATION and E-DISCOVERY MANAGEMENT
LCW is committed to using state-of-the-art technology to efficiently manage and harness electronically-stored information ("ES!") in compliance with Federal and State law requirements. LCW partners with an outside managed services provider to provide Relativity, the industry leading e-discovery software, for this purpose. The cost for each matter will depend on the volume and format of the data. For non-complex data up to 50 gigabytes, LCW charges a monthly fee of $450 on all active litigation matters for data management, including data validation and security, ingestion, de-duplication, culling and streamlining, and creation of Relativity fields for expedited review. For data of 50 gigabytes and over and for complex data requiring specialized services (e.g., payroll data, spreadsheets with underlying formulas, video, advanced searches, etc.), additional charges are incurred and are passed through to the client. For such charges, we will provide an itemized bill from our managed services provider and obtain client approval prior to incurring the charges.
Litigation Case Staffing
LCW has organized its litigation practice to meet the challenges of today's complex litigation cases. We employ a dedicated Litigation Manager - a non-billing attorney litigator - whose responsibility is to monitor all litigation cases to ensure quality, efficiency, and adherence to client and firm litigation guidelines. Each litigation case is staffed with a Partner, an Associate (or Associates, as required and as approved by the Client), a Paralegal and an E-Discovery Specialist. Our E-Discovery Specialists have extensive experience in the efficient management of electronic data through every stage of the e-discovery life cycle, and they strategize with attorneys and clients on effective ESI protocols. This makes the document review process more efficient and enables our attorneys to target the most relevant data to meet litigation objectives. Working with our e-discovery managed services provider, we are able to provide state-of-the-art data processing and hosting services at below-market rates.
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