January 8, 1999

The Honorable Board of Supervisors
County of Los Angeles
383 Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration
500 West Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Dear Supervisors:

REQUEST FOR BUDGET ADJUSTMENT TO PROVIDE
ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR THE OFFICE OF THE
COUNTY COUNSEL TO PARTIALLY IMPLEMENT THE MANAGEMENT
AUDIT RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE INDEPENDENT AUDIT FIRM OF
BARRINGTON-WELLESLEY GROUP, INC., AND ALTMAN, WEIL, INC.
All Districts (3-Vote)

IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT YOUR BOARD:

PURPOSE OF RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Reduction of Children's Services Division High Caseloads. The management audit ordered by your Board found there was an immediate need to significantly reduce caseloads for the Children'sServices Division (CSD) attorneys. Caseloads for trial attorneys in the CSD were found to be at dangerously high levels. Such caseloads were found to have a negative impact on the quality of legal services being provided. We agree that this recommendation should be addressed immediately as the highest priority. The addition of attorneys at CSD will significantly reduce trial and appellate caseloads and improve the quality of legal representation. Existing personnel cannot be reallocated to the CSD without adversely impacting the quality and quantity of services currently being provided to all other client departments and agencies.

Capital Projects/Refurbishment. This request will provide for the refurbishment of existing County Counsel Office space located in Monterey Park at the Edmund D. Edelman Children's Court for the new attorneys and support staff.

Modification of Relationship with Auxiliary Legal Services, Inc. The management audit also found the current relationship with ALS requires modification. For the last ten years the County Counsel's Office responded to growing workload demands, in part, by increasing the use of ALS legal and support staff services throughout the office. Although such services cost less in the short-term, the long-term use of these services has resulted in a number of problems. We concur that the relationship is in need of evaluation to identify specific modifications for implementation.

Of the eighty-six (86) staff attorneys currently assigned to the CSD, seventy-one (71) are employed by ALS. Nineteen (19) other attorneys employed by ALS are working in six (6) of the remaining eight (8) divisions of the Office.

The proposed ordinance position authority for County staff will facilitate the ultimate reduction of the use of services provided by ALS, and address the office-wide problems discussed in the management audit. These new ordinance positions will allow the Office to conduct Civil Service exams to obtain permanent staff to fill ongoing staffing needs and correspondingly reduce the long-term reliance on ALS.

JUSTIFICATION:

The management audit recognized caseloads of CSD attorneys were dangerously high, resulted in low morale, and reduced the quality of legal work. The management audit recommended that caseloads be immediately and significantly reduced. Funds to hire and accommodate attorneys for the CSD will address the above problems and decrease the caseload per attorney.

The audit also found that poor morale and low salaries of ALS employees have resulted in extremely high turnover, increased training and court costs, increased risk, and reduced quality of service. The audit recommended reevaluation of the relationship with ALS. We agree that the County's relationship with ALS needs to be modified and that any benefits that accrued to the County through our relationship with ALS have been impacted by the significant problems of low morale, high turnover, and increased training and court costs. The funding to add the remaining County Counsel positions, with the goal of ultimately reducing the use of support and attorney staff services from ALS, will minimize the impact of salary differential as a factor in morale and employee turnover problems in all of the affected divisions in the County Counsel's Office.

If the additional permanent positions are approved, upon completion of the proposed Civil Service exams, we will be in a better position to further evaluate and report to you with recommendations for modifying the County's contractual relationship with ALS.

FISCAL IMPACT:

Approval of the attached budget adjustment will increase the Office of the County Counsel's budget by $1.513 million and transfer from Services and Supplies $600,000 to Salaries and Employee Benefits and $220,000 to Capital Projects/Refurbishment. There is no net County cost for the current fiscal year.

FINANCING:

The primary funding source for these increased services for the County Counsel budget adjustment ($1.3 million) is the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) through the Emergency Workload Relief Allocation (EWRA). The Director of DCFS supports this request. However, if funding from DCFS ends, it will be necessary for the DCFS and the County Counsel's Office to identify another source of funds.

The balance ($213,000) of the funding sources for the County Counsel's budget adjustment is from other client departments. The additional funding will result from minor increased hourly rates to be charged for staff attorneys, where such work had previously been provided by ALS employees. The proposed budget adjustment will be funded through Intrafund Transfers.

IMPACT ON CURRENT SERVICES (OR PROJECTS):

Approval of the budget adjustment will enable the County Counsel's Office to reduce CSD caseloads, improve the quality of legal services, address staff morale, decrease staff turnover, and lower overall costs to the County on a long-term basis.

LWP:LC:ks

Attachments

c: David E. Janssen, Chief Administrative Officer
Alan T. Sasaki, Auditor-Controller
Michael J. Henry, Director of Personnel
Peter Digre, Director
Department of Children and Family Services
Joanne Sturges, Executive Officer
final

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