Hello Council,
I'm writing about your closed door session to evaluate the City Attorney. I see from this staff report
[https://www.menlopark.org/DocumentCenter/View/20843/F1---20190312-City-Atty-agree-amend-SR-CC?bidId=] that you plan to give him a
raise and maybe even a bonus later. (This report wasn't linked to the public notice of the Closed Door session. I think these
kinds of reports should be linked to the agenda topic so the public can be more informed. I had to search for the report.)
During your last closed session, I raised some concerns and suggestions pertaining to the City Attorney's role. The City
Attorney's upcoming retirement in the next year (or so) offers MP an opportunity to consider role changes. I said I would follow
up to put my verbal input into writing. My comments:
1) When the City Attorney retires, I think the job should be posted and a broad search conducted. I would not just appoint the
Assistant City Attorney into the role. That could lead to maintaining the Status Quo in MP and also limit our possibilities.
You've already received or heard concerns about the MP hiring practices of just appointing people into key roles and the need for
posted requisitions. I agree with these concerns.
2) The City Attorney's role seems to focus on serving the "City." The "City" in practice seems to mean staff and MP's financial
interests. Our City Attorney's upcoming retirement offers Council the opportunity to revise the role into a more proactive one,
and one that focuses more on serving the public good or the residents of Menlo Park. I suggest that the City Attorney's office
develop aStrategic Plan
[https://www.cacities.org/Member-Engagement/Professional-Departments/City-Attorneys-Department/Documents/Strategic-Planning-for-City-Attorneys-pdf.aspx]
with goals related to promoting the integrity of the City and preserving the public's trust. I like thePortland City Attorney
Office Strategic Plan [https://www.portlandoregon.gov/attorney/article/581493]Goal #4: To Ensure Accountability for Good
Stewardship of Public Resources and Compliance with Law. An evolved role for our City Attorney's office offers MP an opportunity
to help our local government to move towards a robust culture of ethics -- to prevent or minimize the risk of corruption scandals
that have occured in smaller cities that typically have inadequate or limited transparency, oversight and accountability. A City
Attorney Strategic Plan also offers a way to evolve the role into one more aligned with overall City priorities. The Denver
example
[https://www.denvergov.org/content/dam/denvergov/Portals/728/documents/Peak_Performance/CityAttorney/City%20Attorney%20Strategic%20Plan%202013.pdf]
illustrates this idea as also does the Tacoma
[https://cms.cityoftacoma.org/finance/budget/2017-2018/Perf_Measures/Q2.2017.Report.pdf]example. There are other online examples.
3) MP has about 50 Public/Private Partnerships according to the City Attorney. He made this remark during the candidates' forum
held before our last City Council election. However, I can find no overall list with the specifics for each deal. The public has a
right to know at least snapshot information for each public/private partnership. Right now, we have no way of evaluating if these
partnerships are actually benefiting the public good. Any time financial information is not supplied, there is great potential for
mismanagement or actual corruption. The specifics are needed so the public can determine if these public/private partnership deals
are actually serving the public good. The City Manager and Council also needs the details so you can be informed. The City
Attorney seems to be the person with the most historical knowledge of these deals. So, I suggest that he and his office start
documenting these deals into a written record in a table format that would, at minimum, include: Name of Private Agency/Company,
Contact information, Original Date of Deal and Last Revision, Overview of Deal, Financial Details, Lead MP staff member who
negotiated the deal/is responsible for deal. There will be blanks or missing information that can be added later. Just starting to
get written details down would be a most helpful start.
Compliance with the laws of our land is also considered the minimum threshold of ethics. I've written the City Attorney about
possible MP non-compliance with laws, but I've not gotten a formal response based on his investigation. When the public brings
notice of broken laws to the City Attorney, we deserve a response. I think it's important that our Council members and staff
follow the law. Unfortunately, my lack of getting a response to legitimate concerns sends a troubling message to me about the MP
culture and the role of our City Attorney regarding residents. For the record, I've written the City Attorney about:
A) California Laws
[http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=EDC&division=1.&title=1.&part=11.&chapter=5.&article=2.]
governing Muncipal Libraries. I've written to ask if he thinks the role of the MP Library Commission needs to change to conform to
California law. I first wrote at the request of the Library Commission when I was still serving as a Library commissioner. I have
yet to get a response.B) Misuse of Public Resources. I wrote and then met with the City Attorney regarding a misuse of public
resources that I inadvertedly learned about. I had ample evidence. All I wanted was the practice stopped, more ethics-related
training and an easy-to-refer manual such as an example from the City of LA. I even offered to write the draft of the manual. The
Deputy Director of the City of LA's ethics Commission also told me verbally that MP could leverage any of the LA ethics-related
materials. (My background includes public relations and marketing communications at a major computer company, and you could
consider me a professional writer of business materials. I could certainly write the draft.) However, I never heard back from the
City Attorney with the outcome of his investigation of the matter.C) Ticket Distribution Policy.
[http://ccin.menlopark.org/19619.html]The FPPC requires one and I don't believe that MP has the required policy. I've never heard
back in response to my email on the topic.D) Concentration of Affordable Housing in Belle Haven. District 1 has a pronounced
concentration of affordable housing. The evidence is more than there. Many members of the public continue to voice concerns about
the concentration. According to my research, this concentration violates the Fair Housing Law and is putting MP at risk of a
potential lawsuit. More importantly, we need to follow the law, comply with the reasons behind the law and work to spread
affordable housing fairly across all of MP. I have yet to hear a response from the City Attorney's office regarding steps MP is
taking to follow the Fair Housing Law.
Lynne Bramlett
