Department of Human Resources
Reference: City Attorney Recruitment
To: Mayor Gregory Mills and Members of City Council
Through: Jane Bais DiSessa, City Manager
Prepared By: Karen Borkowski Surine, Assistant City Manager
Date Prepared: January 28, 2021
PURPOSE
To receive direction from City Council regarding the City Attorney search.
STRATEGIC FOCUS AREA
Innovative, Data-Driven, Results-Focused City Government
Financially Responsible
BACKGROUND
The City Attorney position became vacant on 1/12/21. Council desires to fill this position with a qualified individual licensed to practice law in Colorado. A search can be conducted utilizing internal Human Resources professionals or Council may choose to hire a 3rd party search firm following City procurement policies. Council also has the option to interview and select an outside firm to cover City legal issues.
The benefits of doing the search internally include no initial cost outlay, work with experienced, people-oriented staff that care about Brighton’s future, in-house graphic designer to design the recruitment brochure, knowledge about City benefits, knowledge of various recruitment sites, and customer service oriented. Additionally, with a Deputy City Attorney on staff, we have a
succession plan for coverage readily available. In the event that an out of state attorney is hired, this would also allow the individual coverage while obtaining a Colorado license.
Drawbacks are that there are a lot of City attorney searches going on that would compete for the same pool of candidates, Thornton and Boulder are two examples of municipalities in our areas with openings.
Benefits of having a third party search firm is that they often have a pipeline of candidates they have established relationships with qualified candidates that they work with to find a position that fits the specific needs of both the candidate and the municipality. Additionally, they offer a 1-2 year guarantee that the candidate is a good fit or they do another search for cost only (however costs can be high as they could include flights, hotel and other expenses for them to meet with Council and assist with interviews and in-person meetings with Council).
Disadvantages of hiring a 3rd party are cost (just under $25k plus costs and potential availability when Council wants to speak with them.
Council also asked about the cost for hiring an outside law firm to cover the City’s legal needs. The cost the final full year the City used an outside law firm averaged $482k per year. This cost did not include specialty legal services, such as an oil and gas attorney, which the City already has. The advantage of this legal model is having a team with different areas of expertise. Disadvantages are the cost overruns, mixed availability for meetings and advice causing potential timeliness issues, and potential conflicts of interest with other clients.
OPTIONS FOR COUNCIL CONSIDERATION
1. Authorize staff to conduct a search after getting Council input on the job description, advertised salary, and recruitment brochure.
2. Have staff obtain bids from 3rd party recruitment firms.
3. Direct staff to obtain requests for proposals from legal firms and other pertinent information on outside legal firms so to represent the City on legal issues.
4. Give further direction to staff.