The Garlic Capital’s search for an in-house city attorney has come to a screeching halt.
The top candidate, chosen after an 11-month nationwide search, initially accepted the job but reneged and rejected the city’s offer, Mayor Don Gage confirmed this week.
Instead, the San Jose-based firm that has represented Gilroy since the 1990s, Berliner Cohen, will stay on the city’s payroll. And they’re going to get more money for providing services in Gilroy as the in-house city attorney proposal floats belly-up in the water.
The Gilroy City Council Monday night unanimously approved a pay increase for attorneys with the firm, one Berliner Cohen asked for, Council Member Perry Woodward said. The minimum hourly rate for city attorney services jumped from $239 to $275—a $36-per-hour or 13 percent overall increase—following the council’s action.
But an hourly rate of $275 is what the “lowest person on the totem pole” at Berliner Cohen makes, according to Gage. Acting City Attorney Andy Faber collects more than $500 an hour as partner, he pointed out.
“They haven’t had a raise for six years so we needed to adjust that,” Gage said.
He added Berliner Cohen opted to ”freeze their rates” at $226-per-hour during the Great Recession and only got a pay hike in 2014, when the minimum hourly rate bounced up to $239.
“We find ourselves over a barrel as a consequence of what has transpired,” Woodward said, of the top candidate’s decision to decline the offer and the concurrent request by Berliner Cohen for more pay. “We can’t be without a city attorney.”
Gage, Woodward and Council Member Cat Tucker formed a committee in February 2014 to conduct the search. But the search is over, at least for now.
“We’re not going to go spend any more money headhunting,” Gage said. “We’re just going to stay with Berliner Cohen.”
The total cost to the city to conduct the nationwide search was not available as of press time.
“The prudent thing to do now is pause and think about next steps,” Woodward added. “In the interim, we’re left with Berliner Cohen and they want more money moving forward. Frankly we don’t have a lot of options. What we’re going to do in the long-term is something that needs to be fully discussed by the council.”
The council opted to make a switch in representation in a 5-2 vote last February. Council Member Terri Aulman was one of the dissenting votes. She raised concerns at the time over how much the attorney would cost the city—both salary-wise and pension-wise—citing a lack of a staff report detailing any fiscal comparisons.
Details on the offer made to the top candidate were not available as of press time, but the Dispatch has formally requested a copy of the offer.
Woodward brought the item to replace Berliner Cohen with an attorney who would work within City Hall’s own walls to the dais every year, since first elected to the council in 2007.
He told the Dispatch that the contracted-firm model, with it’s built-in, minimum hourly rate for everything from making telephone calls, typing emails to researching case law, hinders the ability of city employees and council members to utilize the firm as a resource.
“I still do have concerns about Berliner Cohen,” Woodward said. “We have to be vigilant as we chart our course here and take the next steps.”
“In the future if the council decides they want to look again (for an in-house attorney), they can do it,” Gage added. “I’m not going to spend any more money looking. We already looked through who is available and didn’t get anybody. Going back and spending more money isn’t going to accomplish anything.”
