I recall writing an article last year detailing our city attorney's budget, and how it was a significantly higher portion of our general fund than all of our surrounding cities. I also recall critics praising our city attorney for "defending" the city from developers, and we were told that our excessive city attorney budget was due to one case (Fish and Bowl) for which we would prevail. The city did prevail, and there was much back-slapping and self-congratulation.
Except city council has once again approved a city attorney budget close to $1 million. Their justification was "anticipated litigation."
When I pressed them at the most recent city council meeting to explain what litigation they were anticipating, there was no response.
In fact, the Pacifica City Council had discussed "pending litigation" during a closed session before this meeting, and the city attorney claimed they had nothing to report from that closed session. Exactly how does city council approve such a large budget with "nothing to report"?
As Yogi Berra said, "it's like deja vu all over again." First of all, who exactly prevailed in the Fish and Bowl lawsuit? The land was not developed and the developer will likely declare bankruptcy.
The city will see no financial benefits from development. The city recouped some of its legal fees from a contentious lawsuit with ABAG which, in my opinion, effectively destroyed any good will and our reputation with that respectable organization. In the end, the city spent over $5 million in legal fees, effectively crippling every other functional aspect of city government for 4 years, and the city still lost over $1 million even after the ABAG settlement.
Instead of negotiating in good faith, the city attorney got her rolodex of rich lawyer buddies even richer, while the citizens of Pacifica were deprived substantial tax dollars for basic city services. We, the citizens also paid for our failure to negotiate with decent city employees like Dave Carmany, Mike Angel, and Maureen Lennon as well as local citizens (Arno Rohloff) and businesses (Coastside Scavenger). The only people who have really prevailed are the law firms of Hanson Bridget LLP, Lombardi Loeper & Conant LLP, McDonough Holland & Allen, and others.
Not that I have anything against lawyers, and I don't begrudge them for earning a living. But I do begrudge our city leadership when they subsidize law firms from their refusal to negotiate in good faith, and proceed with what I view as fiscally irresponsible and politically reckless legal decisions.
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