REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: DOUGLAS SLOAN, City Attorney
City Attorney’s Office
BY: TINA R. GRIFFIN, Chief Assistant City Attorney
Litigation Unit, City Attorney’s Office
SUBJECT
Title
Actions pertaining to the expansion of the Litigation Unit in the City Attorney’s Office:
1. ***RESOLUTION - Adopt the 4th Amendment to the Position Authorization Resolution (“PAR”) No. 2021-179, adding three full-time positions of Senior Paralegal, Paralegal, and Executive Assistant in the City Attorney’s Office (Subject to Mayor’s Veto).
Body
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that Council authorize the adoption of the 5th Amendment to the Position Authorization Resolution (PAR) No. 2021-179, adding three full-time positions of Senior Paralegal, Paralegal, and Executive Assistant in the City Attorney’s Office.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Staff recommends Council approve the 5th Amendment to the PAR to add three full-time positions as follows: two full-time positions of Senior Paralegal and Paralegal to cover the expansion of public records resulting an increase in workload as a result of the changes in the laws relating to Public Records Act requests, subpoenas, COVID-19 related issues, cannabis, and other cases or matters involving the City; and adding one full-time Executive Assistant position to handle confidential personnel/labor matters as defined in the Fresno Municipal Code relating to increased workload for personnel/labor matters.
BACKGROUND
There are currently a total of six paralegals: one supervising paralegal, one senior paralegal, and two paralegals, handling reviewing and redacting documents and video and audio files for all Public Records Act request along with subpoenas, including those related to police officer personnel files deemed to be public records under the law as discussed below. In addition, two paralegals are assigned to assist Risk attorneys in various litigation cases or matters involving the City in researching, drafting motions, and preparing for hearings and depositions.
On January 1, 2019, Senate Bill 1421 (“SB 1421”) became effective and amended the California Penal Code to require the following police officers’ records (audio and videos included) relating to the report, investigation, or findings of the following categories disclosable under the California Public Records Act (“PRA”) as a matter of law: 1) incidents in which an officer discharges a firearm at a person or used force against a person resulting in death or great bodily injury; 2) incidents in which a sustained finding was made that an officer engaged in sexual assault involving a member of the public; and 3) incidents in which a sustained finding was made that peace officer was dishonest. The current PRA paralegals are still working on eliminating the backlog of SB 1421 cases to process. The delays result from the required redactions for the documents, video, and audio recordings.
This current request for additional paralegals is the result of new laws further expanding police officer records disclosures and the increase in other PRA requests unrelated to police officer records. On January 1, 2022, Senate Bill 16 (“SB 16”) became effective and further expands the release of police officers’ records. SB 16 broadens the categories and timeframe of records of misconduct by police officers that are required to be produced through Public Records Act requests. The PRA now requires disclosure of the records to be within 45 days from the date of a request. In addition the following new categories of records must be disclosed after the appropriate redactions in addition to the prior categories: 1) incidents in which a sustained finding involves a complaint that alleges unreasonable or excessive force; 2) incidents where there is a sustained finding that an officer failed to intervene against another officer using force that is clearly unreasonable or excessive; 3) any record relating to an incident in which a sustained finding was made by any law enforcement agency that a peace officer engaged in conduct including, but not limited to, verbal statement, writings, online posts, recordings, and gestures, involving prejudice or discrimination against a person on the basis of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identify, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, or military and veteran status; and 4) any record relating to an incident in which a sustained finding was made by any law enforcement agency that the peace officer made an unlawful arrest or conducted an unlawful search.
With only four paralegals on PRA responses for the entire City of Fresno, the City Attorney’s Office anticipates difficulties with meeting the 45 days disclosure timeline as there is currently a backlog of SB 1421 cases to process along with ongoing activity taking place within the City, such as COVID-19 related issues, and cannabis matters. The increase in City business generated within the last year alone substantially burdens the current PRA paralegals. In addition, with a majority of the City’s police officers wearing body-worn cameras, the time required to review and redact confidential or proprietary information from the video footages and audio data has increased.
The expansion of the Litigation Unit by hiring one full-time Senior Paralegal and one full-time Paralegal will help reduce the current backlog and workloads and provide the City Attorney’s Office with the workforce required to process Public Records Act requests.
In addition, due to the increase in City personnel and labor matters the City Attorney’s Office handles because of the increase in new City employee hiring and changes in the laws and the fast-changing COVID-19 rules and regulations affecting the workplace, an Executive Assistant is requested to assist the attorneys handling personnel and labor matters in the City Attorney’s Office. This fast-changing employment/labor-related area calls for the need for an additional Executive Assistant who is capable of handling these very demanding and evolving matters which involve confidential access to decisions of city management affecting employer-employee relations. An Executive Assistant is needed to handle these types of employment-related matters since an Executive Assistant with these responsibilities is a confidential employee as defined under Fresno Municipal Code section 3-603(d), unlike other represented employees in the office. The Executive Assistant is a non-represented confidential employee in Unit 2. The requested Executive Assistant will be assigned to handle matters involving employer-employee relations, such as labor issues relating to disciplines, labor negotiations, grievances, and Memoranda of Understanding for represented employees.
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, one Paralegal, and one Executive Assistant will not result in increased salary and benefit expenses in Fiscal Year 2022, as there is sufficient funding within the City Attorney’s Office’s budget as appropriated in the Fiscal Year 2022 Annual Appropriation Resolution.
Attachment:
5th Amendment to the Position Authorization Resolution (“PAR”) No. 2021-179