CITY OF SAN MATEO
CITY OF SAN MATEO
Agenda Report
City Hall
330 W. 20th Avenue
San Mateo CA 94403
www.cityofsanmateo.org
Agenda Number: 10 Section Name: {{section.name}} Account Number: 10-3134 File ID: {{item.tracking_number}} TO: City Council
FROM: Alex Khojikian, City Manager
PREPARED BY: Community Development Department
MEETING DATE: June 3, 2024
SUBJECT:
Administrative Hearing Officer On-Call Services – Agreements RECOMMENDATION:
Approve agreements with Civica Law, Nastich Law, and Michael Roush for on-call administrative hearing officer services for a period of five years in the amount of $300,000 for each agreement, for a total not-to-exceed amount of $900,000; and authorize the City Manager to execute each agreement in substantially the form presented.
BACKGROUND:
The City’s Administrative Citation Ordinance (San Mateo Municipal Code (SMMC) Chapter 1.10) establishes procedures for the issuance of administrative citations for violations of certain provisions of the SMMC. On October 17, 2022, the City Council introduced an Ordinance to amend SMMC Section 1.10.060 "Appeal of Administrative Citation" and Chapter 2.21 “Community Relations Commission” to create an administrative citation appeal procedure before an impartial hearing officer related to violations of technical building and health and safety codes. This ordinance was adopted on November 7, 2022, and went into effect 30 days afterwards. To implement this appeals process, the City needs to engage independent legal professionals to act as hearing officers to conduct appeal hearings. With a bench of qualified hearing officers in place, the City will have the ability to ensure that appeal hearings can be conducted and processed in a timely manner.
On January 24, 2024, the City issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Administrative Hearing Officer Services. Six proposals were received by the February 14, 2024 deadline. After review of the proposals by staff, four law firms and individuals were invited to an interview during the week of March 11, 2024. Based on the outcome of those interviews, three firms/individuals were selected as meeting the City’s requirements to provide Administrative Hearing Officer Services.
Civica Law has shown itself to be an experienced public law firm, specializing in code enforcement, municipal law, and administrative proceedings. Nastich Law has demonstrated extensive background in conducting and managing administrative hearings. Michael Roush has served numerous cities in California, hearing appeals to notices of violations about building code, property maintenance, and rent control.
Based on the expertise demonstrated by these three firms and the City’s anticipated need to process and conduct appeals of administrative citations in a timely manner, staff recommends entering into agreements for Administrative Hearing Officer Services with Civica Law, Nastich Law, and Michael Roush. Each firm will serve as a hearing officer for the City as needed on a rotating basis. Having a bench of qualified hearing officers will ensure that an appeal hearing can be held in a timely manner in the event one of the attorneys has a conflict of interest and/or is unavailable.
BUDGET IMPACT:
Administrative hearings or any other work performed by these on-call hearing officers will be accounted for in the existing
CITY OF SAN MATEO
Community Development Department's Annual Budget for Code Enforcement, with the specific funding source dependent on the nature of the appeal.
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION:
The approval of these Agreements is not subject to CEQA review under the “common sense” exemption, because it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the approval of hearing officer agreements may have a significant effect on the environment. (CEQA Guidelines Section 15061(b)(3).) NOTICE PROVIDED:
All meeting noticing requirements were met.
ATTACHMENTS
Att 1 –Agreement with Civica Law
Att 2 –Agreement with Nastich Law
Att 3 –Agreement with Michael Roush
STAFF CONTACT
Eugene Alper, Code Enforcement Manager
[email protected]
(650) 522-7154
Zachary Dahl, Interim Community Development Director
[email protected]
(650) 522-7207