SR 02-28-2023 5G
City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: February 28, 2023
Agenda Item: 5.G
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Douglas Sloan, City Attorney, City Attorney's Office, Administration
Subject: Adoption of Salary Resolution for New and Existing Job Classifications and
Approval of Position Changes
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Adopt a finding of no project and/or categorical exemption pursuant to Section
15324 (Class 24 Regulations of Working Conditions) of the California
Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines; and
2. Adopt a resolution establishing a new classification and salary rate for the new
classification of Executive Administrative Assistant-CAO (Attachment A); and
3. Approve the cost neutral budget and position changes described in the Financial
Impacts and Budget Action section of this report.
Summary
This report presents proposed staffing adjustments within the City Attorney’s Office
(CAO) that do not impact the General Fund. The proposed staffing adjustments address
ongoing operational changes and align existing duties with appropriate classifications.
The report also includes a salary resolution establishing a new classification for
Executive Administrative Assistant-CAO and its applicable salary rate.
Discussion
The priorities reflected in this proposal are to save the City money and to retain valuable
employees in the CAO, especially staff who provide support for the attorneys. This
report also proposes adding one attorney who will be dedicated to Big Blue Bus (BBB)
liability claims, funded by the BBB Fund.
This is being brought at this time for several reasons. The City, as well as many other
jurisdictions and industries, are experiencing unprecedented employee movement - the
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“Great Resignation.” Employees in the CAO have been pushing themselves hard to
maintain services at pre-COVID levels, but with reduced resources and numbers of
employees. There are morale issues that are long overdue in being addressed, and
additional delay can only make it worse. Employees have been working beyond their
current job duties, and the proposed changes are designed to at least allow them to be
compensated appropriately, and lessen the chances that they will leave the City for
alternate employment. Employee retention is essential to allow the office to fulfill its
Charter obligations and serve the community.
The proposed staffing changes involve only reassigning employees to other existing
classifications, not creating new classifications. This streamlines, simplifies, and
shortens the process.
The proposed add/deletes do not impact the General Fund; rather, they are funded by
utilizing the Consumer Rights Fund and refocusing some employees to Consumer
Rights matters. At the projected draw down rate, there are adequate resources in the
Consumer Rights Fund to fund the proposed staffing changes for at least seven years,
even assuming no additional funds are collected, which would be highly unusual.
The lawyer funded by the BBB Fund would generate savings estimated at well over
$200,000 per year, versus sending the work to outside counsel. BBB will no doubt incur
at a minimum the equivalent of one FTE of a litigation attorney for the defense of their
liability claims. At $300 per hour, sending out 1,800 hours of work would cost $540,000;
salary and benefits of an in-house lawyer will total less than half of that.
In 2020, the City restructured its workforce to support essential City services and
programs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2020, the CAO, like other City
departments, has navigated the challenges of an increased workload with reduced
resources. The CAO has bridged this gap in large part through the hard work and
dedication of CAO staff, many of whom are performing higher-level duties beyond their
current classification. In addition, although many CAO staff members routinely work
overtime to keep up with the CAO’s increased workload, the volume of work exceeds
existing capacity. Consequently, the CAO has had to rely more on outside law firms on
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projects and matters that could have been handled in-house in a far more cost-effective
manner.
The CAO’s operations have responded to ongoing challenges. In response to the
COVID-19 pandemic and the sudden need to establish a remote work environment, the
CAO’s Criminal Unit transitioned to fully electronic operations in five days. To further the
Council’s priority for a Clean and Safe Santa Monica, the CAO’s Criminal Unit filed
nearly double the number of criminal cases compared to the prior year, 2,033 cases in
2022, compared to 1,080 cases in 2021, and that level of service is expected to
continue. The CAO has leveraged cloud-based solutions to manage the higher volume
in criminal filings. Supporting these technologies and the significant increase in criminal
filings has resulted in CAO staff working overtime and performing higher-level tasks
outside of their current classifications. Accordingly, the CAO proposes adding
(converting) two Legal Assistant positions to better classify employees based on
currently assigned legal duties, in other words, moving the affected employees to higher
existing appropriate classifications.
Mindful of budgetary constraints, the CAO has used creative approaches to support its
operations with existing resources. For example, the CAO provides legal advice and
administrative support to every City department in facilitating the responses to all Public
Records Act (PRA) requests within statutory deadlines. The current volume of PRA-
related work is not sustainable with current resources. To help address the increasing
number of PRA requests, the CAO has closed its reception desk from walk-in requests
to the public so that additional CAO staff resources can be used to support PRA-related
work for the entire City. In addition, the CAO proposes adding another full-time
Administrative Analyst-CAO position, which would support PRA-related work, contract
management, billing, and other administrative functions.
The CAO also has continued to experience an increase in the legal work needed to
support the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) operations, including responding to
pre-suit claims and defending the Big Blue Bus (BBB) in active litigation, which has
required the retention of outside legal counsel to keep pace with the volume of legal
work in this area. To meet this increased need for legal services in a more cost-efficient
manner, the CAO proposes to hire an additional Deputy City Attorney that would be
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funded entirely by the BBB enterprise fund. Hiring an additional Deputy City Attorney
would enable the City to decrease outside counsel fees by over $200,000 per year.
Attachment A is a salary resolution presenting for approval the new classification for
Executive Administrative Assistant-CAO. Staffing adjustments to reflect ongoing
operational changes are found in the Financial Impacts section, below. The actions
presented in Attachment A are described below. The fiscal impact associated with these
changes are cost neutral and will have no fiscal impact on the General Fund. Below are
details about specific position changes and additional positions.
• The proposed deletion of an open Staff Assistant-CAO position and the addition
of an Administrative Analyst-CAO position reflects the department’s intent to
appropriately classify the position based on the currently assigned duties. The
employee would continue to support the City’s efforts to respond to PRA
requests while also supporting contract management, billing, and other
administrative functions across the CAO. Adding this position will bring the
existing position to an appropriate compensation level to reflect the employee’s
current duties. Additionally, performing these functions in-house and retaining an
employee with institutional knowledge is more cost-effective than using an
outside law firm or exposing the City to potential PRA liability.
• The CAO is adding an additional Deputy City Attorney position to support the
Department of Transportation’s (DOT) increased legal work. Hiring an additional
Deputy City Attorney is more cost-effective than using outside counsel and will
result in a net cost-savings to BBB’s enterprise fund.
• The CAO is reclassifying a long-term, dedicated employee working in a
Receptionist position to a newly established Executive Administrative Assistant-
CAO position. This employee will continue to support CAO reception functions,
including responding to in-person requests by appointment, and responding to
telephonic and email inquiries from the public. In addition, this position will help
support the City’s PRA-related work. Performing these functions in-house and
retaining a long-term employee with institutional knowledge is more cost-effective
than using an outside law firm.
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• The CAO is reclassifying a long-term, dedicated Staff Assistant-CAO to a newly
established Executive Administrative Assistant-CAO position to better reflect the
increased, higher-level legal duties this employee is performing, including
supporting litigation-related work.
• The proposed deletion of two Legal Secretary II positions and the addition of two
Legal Assistant positions reflect the CAO’s intent to appropriately classify the
position based on the currently assigned duties. The CAO is promoting two long-
term dedicated employees into these positions to reflect increased, higher-level
legal duties. Performing these functions in-house and retaining employees with
decades of experience and institutional knowledge is more cost-effective than
having an outside law firm perform these functions.
Environmental Review
The staffing changes in this report are either not a project or categorically exempt
pursuant to Section 15324 (Class 24 Regulations of Working Conditions) of the
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines. Class 24 consists of actions
taken by regulatory agencies to regulate employee wages, hours of work, or working
conditions where there will be no demonstrable physical changes outside the place of
work.
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
The prorated cost of the recommended changes for this fiscal year is approximately
$105,724 or less, depending upon when the new BBB attorney could be recruited and
onboarded. The changes would not have an impact on the General Fund, as they would
be funded by the Big Blue Bus Fund ($69,427 – or less) and reserves from the
Consumer Protection funds ($36,297). The annual ongoing cost is approximately
$360,000, funded by the Big Blue Bus Fund ($230,000) and reserves from the
Consumer Protection funds ($130,000). The ongoing changes would be included in the
FY 2023-25 Proposed Biennial Budget. Future year funding is contingent on Council
budget approval.
The changes, other than the BBB attorney, do not require a transfer from a fund outside
the CAO. The BBB attorney funding would entail a transfer from the BBB Fund to the
General Fund for the expenditure in the CAO. Again, there is no additional cost to the
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General Fund. If approved, the following budget and position changes are required for
the remainder of the current fiscal year:
FY 2022-23 Budget Changes
Fund Dept Account Amount Source
General Fund City Attorney Various Salaries & Wages $36,297 Consumer
Protection
General Fund City Attorney Various Salaries & Wages $69,427 Transfer
from BBB
Fund to GF
for CAO
General Fund Non-Departmental Transfer in ($69,427)
Big Blue Bus Fund Non-Departmental Transfer out $69,427
FY 2022-23 Position Changes
Fund Dept Delete Add Net
Change
Reason
FTE Title FTE Title
General
Fund
CAO 1.0 Staff Assistant -CAO 1.0 Admin Analyst-CAO - Add/Delete
2.0 Legal Secretary II 2.0 Legal Assistant - Add/Delete
1.0 Receptionist 1.0 Executive Admin
Assistant-CAO
- Add/Delete
1.0 Staff Assistant -CAO 1.0 Executive Admin
Assistant-CAO
- Add/Delete
1.0 Deputy City Attorney II 1.0 Add
Prepared By: Bradley Michaud, Principal Legal Analyst
Approved
Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. A-RESO-reso-CAO Staffing Changes
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City Council Meeting: February 28, 2023 Santa Monica, California
RESOLUTION NUMBER ________(CCS)
(City Council Series)
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
ESTABLISHING A NEW CLASSIFICATION FOR EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATIVE
ASSISTANT-CAO AND ADOPTING SALARY RATE FOR SUCH CLASSIFICATION
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
DOES RESOLVE AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The following salary level is hereby established, effective March 12,
2023, for the indicated permanent classification:
Classification Salary Reason
Executive Administrative
Assistant-CAO
$85,932/annual; Step 5 New Classification
SECTION 2. The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this Resolution, and
thenceforth and thereafter the same shall be in full force and effect.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
________________________
Douglas Sloan, City Attorney
5.G.a
Packet Pg. 222 Attachment: A-RESO-reso-CAO Staffing Changes (5604 : CAO Salary Reso)