REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: ANDREW JANZ, City Attorney
City Attorney’s Office
SUBJECT
Title
Actions pertaining to the expansion of the Criminal and Special Prosecutions Unit in the City Attorney’s Office:
***RESOLUTION - Adopt the Second Amendment to the Position Authorization Resolution (“PAR”) No. 2025-178, adding one full-time Senior Paralegal and one full-time City Attorney Investigator positions in the City Attorney’s Office. (Subject to Mayor’s Veto).
Body
RECOMMENDATION
City Attorney recommends that Council authorize the adoption of the Second Amendment to the Position Authorization Resolution (PAR) No. 2025-178, adding one full-time Senior Paralegal and one full-time City Attorney Investigator positions in the Legal Proceedings Section, Criminal and Special Prosecutions Unit of the City Attorney’s Office to enhance the City of Fresno’s wage theft enforcement program.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
City Attorney recommends Council approve the Second Amendment to the PAR to add one full-time Senior Paralegal and one-full time City Attorney Investigator positions to enhance the City of Fresno’s wage theft enforcement program.
BACKGROUND
In July 2023, pursuant to Assembly Bill 102, the State of California appropriated $18 million to the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) to provide Workers’ Rights Enforcement Grants to eligible public prosecutors (defined as “district attorney, a city attorney, a county counsel, or any other city or county prosecutor who has established an office or division of workers’ right enforcement) to enhance labor law enforcement to assist workers in combating wage theft, prevent unfair competition, and protect state revenue.
The City Attorney’s Office was awarded $720,000 of the Workers’ Rights Enforcement Grant on May 16, 2024, and to be utilized toward staff salaries and benefits for the period of August 1, 2024 through July 31, 2025. On June 20, 2024, City Council allocated $720,000 to the City Attorney’s Office to implement a wage theft enforcement program for the City of Fresno. In August 2025, the City Attorney’s Office was awarded an Encumbrance Plan to carryover the remaining balance of the Workers’ Rights Enforcement Grant as the Wage Protection Program has seen a dramatic increase in referrals and new complaints. Additional positions were provided for in the Encumbrance Plan to assist with enhancing the City’s Wage Protection Program.
The City’s wage theft enforcement program is the first municipality in the San Joaquin Valley region to protect workers from wage thefts and other exploitative practices in the workplace and incentivize legal compliance by employers. However, the lack of resources in the region has created significant barriers for workers in the City of Fresno to file complaints on wage theft violations, report other labor violations, and hold bad actors accountable. Workers coming forward to file complaint need a lot of community support and advocates supporting their fears around retaliation and losing their only sources of income. This created a culture of noncompliance with labor laws and left workers with no remedy. An added hurdle in the region has been the recent immigration raids under the Trump Administration which have caused a chilling effect on workers advocating for their rights. These challenges resulted in the under enforcement of wage laws and labor prosecutions initially. However, the Wage Protection Program is now showing promising results as the Wage Protection Program utilized a partnership and collaborative model to implement the program.
The expansion of the Criminal and Special Prosecutions Unit in the City Attorney’s Office by hiring one full-time Senior Paralegal and one full-time City Attorney Investigator; is necessary to enhance the program’s ability to efficiently and effectively conduct outreach with community partners, other government agencies, and direct outreach to vulnerable workers and building a pipeline of case referrals and information to the community in order to investigate and prosecute the widespread wage theft in the City of Fresno and hold employers accountable for their noncompliance with Labor Code.
As such, the job duties of the City Attorney Investigator includes, but is not limited to, assisting in processing initial claim intakes; notifying claimants and/or witnesses of their interviews; interviewing claimants and witnesses; analyzing and evaluating evidence/information; conducting follow-up interviews; drafting investigation reports and memorandums; analyzing for potential violations of Labor Code; conferring with Wage Protection Program Attorney with findings, evaluations, and/or challenges; conducting research and identifying other resources; participating in outreach activities to promote the wage theft program.
The job duties of the Senior Paralegal includes, but is not limited to, drafting subpoenas for production of business records; researching and providing records from the Franchise Tax Board, Department of Industrial Relations, Secretary of State, local courts and City of Fresno departments; drafting form interrogatories, special interrogatories, requests for admissions, request for production of documents; conducting wage theft calculations; assisting with creation of documents/forms as needed for the unit.
There is no requirement to meet and confer with bargaining units over this PAR amendment as this is only increasing the number of employees in existing classifications.
ENVIRONMENTAL FINDINGS
This is not a “project” for the purposes of the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) Guidelines Section 15378 and is therefore exempt from the CEQA requirements.
LOCAL PREFERENCE
Local preference is not implicated because this item does not involve public contracting or bidding with the City of Fresno.
FISCAL IMPACT
The addition of one Senior Paralegal and one City Attorney Investigator will not result in increased salary and benefit expenses in Fiscal Year 2026, as the positions will be funded through grant.
Upon completion of the grant period as proscribed under the grant, any employees achieving permanent status will remain permanent employees under the Fresno Municipal Code and these positions will be re-allocated to the general fund during the appropriate budget year.
Attachment:
Second Amendment to the Position Authorization Resolution (“PAR”) No. 2025-178