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 go...
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