City Council Memorandum
TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL DATE: JANUARY 6, 2026 FROM: CITY ATTORNEY WARDS: ALL
SUBJECT: OUTSIDE COUNSEL EXPENDITURE REPORT
ISSUE:
To receive and review the City’s Outside Counsel Expenditure Report for the period of April 1, 2025, through June 30, 2025, as provided in the City’s Outside Counsel Policy approved by City Council on June 16, 2015.
RECOMMENDATION:
That the City Council receive and file the attached report.
BACKGROUND:
In order to increase transparency and accountability, in 2015, City Council approved the City Attorney’s recommendation of quarterly reporting of the City’s outside counsel expenditures. This report includes expenditures for the period of April 1, 2025, through June 30, 2025, as well as the total amounts paid to each law firm for each matter from inception. All closed matters are highlighted in blue and will not be included in the next quarterly report.
There was a slight increase in outside counsel expenditures in FY 24/25 partly because this report now includes all outside counsel engagements, including those requested by other departments, such as Human Resources, Finance, and the City Manager’s Office. For example, the City Manager’s Office requested the retention of outside counsel for several public/private partnership projects including the ASR and AB Brown development projects. Although the City initially paid the outside counsel bills for these projects, outside counsel fees after the ENA agreements were signed are recoverable from the developer’s deposit. As such, the City has requested reimbursement from the developer’s deposit account per the terms of the ENA agreements.
FISCAL IMPACT:
FY 20/21
TOTAL
QTR 1
QTR2
QTR3
QTR4
687,692
1,002,666
893,398
628,463
$3,212,219
FY 21/22
QTR 1
QTR 2
QTR 3
QTR4
TOTAL
857,745
553,639.77
398,734.57
175,471.02
$1,985,590.36
FY 22/23
QTR 1
QTR 2
QTR 3
QTR4
TOTAL
218,981.21
235,101.47
264,445.61
308,380.88
$1,026,909.17
FY 23/24
QTR 1
QTR 2
QTR 3
QTR4
TOTAL
316,770.19
287,910.61
305,075.47
328,466.10
$1,238,222.37
FY 24/25
QTR 1
QTR 2
QTR 3
QTR4
TOTAL
439,052.48
557,091.27
636,242.38
443,781.09
$2,076,167.22
Prepared by: Rebecca McKee-Reimbold, Interim City Attorney Attachment: Outside Counsel Expenditure Report FY 2024/25 4th Quarter