The Gilroy City Council Monday night will discuss whether to pay more out- of-pocket for legal services on an hourly basis, as recommended by City Administrator Tom Haglund.
In a staff report to the Council, Haglund recommended increasing the pay for attorneys with San Jose-based Berliner Cohen, who provide city attorney services for Gilroy and have since the 1990s, from $239 to $275 an hour. That is a 13 percent pay increase.
The firm froze their hourly rate at $226 during the Great Recession in 2009/2010 and held rates their for five years, according to Haglund. Only in 2014 did the firm’s hourly rate jump to $239, he said.
“The amended agreement will increase Berliner’s hourly rate to $275 per hour, the rate at which the hourly rate would have progressed had Berliner not volunteered to freeze their rate for a five year period during the Great Recession,” Haglund wrote in the report.
The City Council will also discuss whether to make improvements to the Auto Mall Parkway on Chestnut Street at public expense, including the addition of new highway signs, a name change that would impact dozens of businesses and the installation of decorative stone structures at the mall.
The city has been in dialogue with Caltrans to rename portions of 10th and Chestnut streets to “Auto Mall Parkway” and is interested in adding highway signs to reflect the designation, Public Works Director Rick Smelser said in the staff report.
The street name change would impact 30 businesses, including five auto dealers. While the dealers are in favor of the redesignation, one affected business owner said the change would have lasting financial consequences.
“One email opposed the change from a business long-established along the northern side of 10th Street between the freeway and north Chestnut Street,” the staff report reads. “The respondent indicated that the name change would pose a burden to their business as they had previously paid for business letterhead, cards, advertisements and Yellow Pages that would need to be changed with street designation.”
The Gilroy City Council meets at 6 p.m. Monday in council chambers of City Hall, located at 7351 Rosanna St.
For a copy of the entire agenda, click here. For a copy of the packet of materials received by the council, click here.
