Mayor Nash,
Having no response to my May 26 letter to the Council that listed the 2021 payments to the City Attorney for work performed for the City, some of which was reimbursed by property owners that have development projects before the City, I am now turning to you with specific questions.
The arrangement, whereby developers reimburse the City for work on their projects performed by our City attorney began in 2011 with the McClure/Jorgensen contract. Today’s arrangement with Ms. Doherty and the Burke firm appears to be similar.
The City is in a position to clarify the specifics of the relationship between our City Attorney and developers. At the May 24 Council meeting Ms. Doherty claimed that my PRA had the potential of burdening the Staff with redacting thousands of pages of documents. This statement came as a surprise and seemed to imply there was an attorney/client privilege she was evoking.
My request was fundamentally for a total of payments to her firm from the City for her work for the City and her work for developers on behalf of the City. This is information promised and delivered to the city for the years preceding Ms. Doherty's hire. Is there a third arrangement in her contract that allows her or her firm to consult directly with developers and doing so would create an attorney/client relationship? If so, one would presume that no city staff member or council member is present during these consultations.
Below is an excerpt from the City’s response to my PRA. As you can see Nos. 2 and 4 were dismissed. There was no discussion as to why the information did not exist. leaving me to interpret as best I can.
1. a statement for the year 2021 January 1 through December 31 showing the total amount billed to the City of Menlo Park by Nira Doherty, or any employee or Partner of Burke, Williams & Sorensen LLP law firm for work performed specifically for the City of Menlo Park
2. a statement for the year 2021 January 1 through December 31 showing the total number of hours billed by Nira Doherty or any employee or partner of Burke, Williams & Sorensen LLP law firm for work performed for entities other than the City of Menlo Park that had business before the City of Menlo Park
3. a statement for the year 2021 January 1 through December 31, showing the total dollar amount reimbursed to the City for Menlo Park for advice or consultation related to developments, projects or business before the City, performed by Nira Doherty or any employee or partner of Burke, Williams & Sorensen LLP law firm
4. the identification of companies that have reimbursed the City of Menlo Park for work performed by Nira Doherty or any employee or partner of Burke, Williams & Sorensen LLP law firm
Date Range: 1/1/2021 - 12/31/2021.
This letter shall serve as the City’s formal written response to your request under the California Public Records Act (Government Code section 6250 et seq.).
I ask that on June 20 when the agenda item regarding the City Attorney’s contract is discussed that you and Ms. Doherty explain why developers are being charged for her time. The question that needs to be raised is what do developers charges include? The public needs a definition. Transparency is a public expectation that can include simple clarifications.
As the 2022 CIty Attorney costs are revealed, there needs to be a council discussion as to the cost analysis of a contract attorney versus a city employee attorney.
Brielle Johnck
On Thu, May 26, 2022 at 8:44 PM gabrielle johnck > wrote:
Dear Mayor Nash and Council,
Yesterday I received a production of documents in response to my May 4 Public Records Act request regarding payment for legal work performed on behalf of the City By Nira Doherty and her firm Burke Williams & Sorensen.
My initial interest expanded once I learned that our City Attorney and her firm also performed work consulting with developers that have projects before the CIty. While the City has previously had a City Attorney that worked with developers that had projects before the City, I have always found the arrangement puzzling.
Upon reviewing the City's production of information, it is clear that there is a considerable amount paid by developers to our contract City Attorney and/or her firm for consultation regarding projects before the City. In ten months of 2021 our City Attorney and/or her firm were paid:
$252,084.00 by Facebook for work on the Willow Village and Hotel Moxy,
$183,531.00 by Greystar for Menlo Uptown, Menlo Portal and Menlo Flats developments,
$153,853.00 by J.Tarlton for 1350 Adams Ct and 1075 O'Brien Office buildings and 1305 O'Brien
$91,675.00 by Bohannon for unidentified work
$99,797.00 by Sobrato for 162-164 Jefferson,123 Independence
$57,255.00 by Springline (Greenheart)
and an additional $21,000.00 for other developments.
Many cities on the Peninsula adhere to the model of hiring their city attorneys as employees. Their job is to work for and represent their cities and not developers. Presumably Redwood City, Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Mountain View, San Mateo and Belmont believe that the cost of employee benefits such as health insurance, sick leave, vacation pay and retirement pensions are worth it. In return, these cities get complete dedication and loyalty.
I ask that quarterly reporting on the City's legal costs be made public and not only produced under a formal Public Records Act request. It is essential that the public know how our attorney is dividing her time between City work and developer work. The delay in making this information public for 2021 was disappointing. It is now almost June of 2022 and the legal costs to date have not been made public, Has the Council received this information?
The optics are not good. Several questions come to mind when trying to grasp the City's relationship with the contract City Attorney and her firm. Can she or her firm truly keep the best interest of Menlo Park in mind when working for and with developers that have business before the City? What is the nature of the advice she gives to these developers? Some have asked me if the City attorney is giving developers talking points to improve the chances of their project's success. Is that too far-fetched to believe? Does the City pay the developer's legal bills upfront, and later is reimbursed by the developers? Is the City a bank for this firm? These questions should be easy to answer.
The relationship between our City Attorney and companies that have development projects before the City seems strange, and open to suspicion. In ten months of 2021 $858,957 was paid to our City Attorney for developer work and $630,914 was paid to her for City work. Will this trend repeat itself in 2022?
Brielle Johnck
Menlo Park
Begin forwarded message:
From: City of Menlo Park Public Records Center >
Date: May 25, 2022 at 1:57:02 PM PDT
To: gabriellejohnck@gmail.com
Subject: Public Records Act Request :: P001920-050422
Attachments:
Copy_of_Developer_Fees.pdf
Copy_of_City_Attorney_Fees.pdf
--- Please respond above this line ---
[https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fmycusthelp.info%2fMENLOPARKCA%2f%2f_cs%2fViewImage.aspx%3fimg%3d1235&c=E,1,uhxDKJypUbWtL8hb-oJGD4tm7-HPFORCmRX5hthDO9qKqGS5sbwObaHh_4ODEyPy0J7VkmS70hfUtK7kodSoh1x4mepqLDx7OyioEnmrWNV9jybu3ZEWxZCkL3L1&typo=1]
City Clerk's Office
May 25, 2022
Brielle Johnck
Dear Brielle,
The City of Menlo Park (“City") is in receipt of your request seeking:
1. a statement for the year 2021 January 1 through December 31 showing the total amount billed to the City of Menlo Park by Nira Doherty, or any employee or Partner of Burke, Williams & Sorensen LLP law firm for work performed specifically for the City of Menlo Park
2. a statement for the year 2021 January 1 through December 31 showing the total number of hours billed by Nira Doherty or any employee or partner of Burke, Williams & Sorensen LLP law firm for work performed for entities other than the City of Menlo Park that had business before the City of Menlo Park
3. a statement for the year 2021 January 1 through December 31, showing the total dollar amount reimbursed to the City for Menlo Park for advice or consultation related to developments, projects or business before the City, performed by Nira Doherty or any employee or partner of Burke, Williams & Sorensen LLP law firm
4. the identification of companies that have reimbursed the City of Menlo Park for work performed by Nira Doherty or any employee or partner of Burke, Williams & Sorensen LLP law firm
Date Range: 1/1/2021 - 12/31/2021.
This letter shall serve as the City’s formal written response to your request under the California Public Records Act (Government Code section 6250 et seq.).
Under established California Law, the City is obliged to comply with a request for a public record so long as the requestor makes a specific and focused request for information, that information is maintained by the City in its ordinary course of business, the information is disclosable, and the record can be located with reasonable effort. The Public Records Act provides for the inspection or copying of existing identifiable public records; it does not compel the City to create new records, lists, privilege logs or reports in response to a request.
The City is required to determine whether the request, in whole or in part, seeks copies of disclosable public records. Consistent with that requirement, the City has conducted a search and is providing the documents attached relating to requests Nos. 1 and 3.
Also consistent with that requirement, the City conducted a search and found no records responsive to requests Nos. 2 and 4.
The City considers this request fulfilled. If you require any additional information or have any further questions, you may contact the City Clerk's Office at 650-330-6620 or respond to this email.
Sincerely,
Judi A. Herren
City Clerk's Office
701 Laurel St., Menlo Park, CA 94025
tel 650-330-6620 fax 650-328-7935
