City Attorney Finalist Review

The City Council conducted interviews on May 7th  with seven of the law firms who had submitted proposals in answer to the City's RFP for City Attorney - Civil and Prosecution services.  Following the interviews, the City Council chose to remain with Randall & Goodrich for prosecution; however, suggested follow-up with two different firms for civil.  The firms chosen to move forward in the process were Michael Couri, Couri & Ruppe, P.L.L.P. and Joseph Langel, Ratwik, Roszak & Maloney, P.A.  

Staff has requested retainer proposals from the two firms, which are attached to this topic report.  Staff has also conducted telephone interviews with each of their references and will report at the meeting.  The minutes from the first interviews for each of these firms are also attached.

Staff has contacted each of  the two attorneys to request they come to the meeting for a brief follow-up interview.

The City policy is to review outside professional contracts on a 3-5 year basis.  The current City Attorney contract for Civil and Criminal (also known as “prosecution”) legal services has been in place for 3 years.
The contract runs until July 1, but can be extended indefinitely under a 30-day termination provision if desired.
The City has had a long-standing legal services arrangement with Bill Goodrich for over 30 plus years and they had re-submitted to continue the contract at the current retainer of $48,000 per year.  In total, 14 firms submitted for either combined civil and criminal, or civil, or criminal services only.

Legal billings for the last 3 years are as follows:

 2010
Criminal     $  72,239
Civil           $  67,235
Combined   $134,474

 2011 
Criminal     $  70,606
Civil           $  61,274
Combined   $131,880

 2012
Criminal      $  70,234
Civil            $  66,131
Combined    $136,365

 Each of these firm have presented an annual retainer:

 Michael Couri, Couri & Ruppe, P.L.L.P.                      $59,000 per year, plus $140/hr for exclusions and $160 per hour work billed 3rd party
Joseph Langel, Ratwik, Roszak & Maloney (RRM),  $48,000 per year, plus $145/hr for exclusions and $185 per hour work billed 3rd party

The City's current law firm is retained (and has proposed) at $48,000 per year and the exclusions are billed at $110 per hour.  Additional work has averaged somewhat less than $20,000 per year over the retainer.  Abatements and forfietures are also covered under the current contract and would not be covered under the other proposals.

The two finalist firms both are qualified with municipal law and have strong experience with Minnesota municipalities.  Couri and Ruppe is a two attorney firm located in St, Micheal, and RRM has eleven attorneys and is located in Minneapolis.

Couri and Ruppe has identified under conflict-of-interest that they currently represent the City of Nowthen.  They state that Nowthen has no objections to their firm representing Ramsey and there are no outstanding conflicts, although the potential exists that each City may want independant representation in the future.

 It is recommended that the City  Council consider the retainer proposals and interview each of the finalists prior to making a selection.

 Based upon disucssion.