Cost Per Attorney for In-House City Attorney’s Offices in Southern California
September 1, 2011 Leave a comment
By Michael Reiter, Attorney at Law
Here is another chart comparing the various in-house City Attorney’s Offices in Southern California. This time, the comparison is the cost per attorney. This is the number arrived at by dividing the 2011-2012 budget (or the latest available budget) by the number of in-house attorneys. This is not the true cost per attorney, because the budget includes such things as supplies, investigators, secretaries, and paralegals. El Centro and Hawthorne have incredible numbers, that if true, show a very tight ship indeed. Newport Beach’s ratio is high because it includes the outside counsel budget. The City of Riverside spends more than $56,000 less per attorney, a number that could be attributable to the City Attorney investigators used in San Bernardino. Oxnard and Oceanside, which are the two cities I think are most analogous to the City of San Bernardino as far as legal problems, demographics and size, are underspending San Bernardino by about $35,000 and $47,000 per attorney. A closer examination of the differences between the offices is in order before drawing more conclusions.
| City Name | # Attorneys | 2011-’12 Budget | $/Attorney |
| San Bernardino County | |||
| San Bernardino | 10 | $3,026,000* | $302,600 |
| Redlands | 1 | $429,237* | $429,237 |
| Riverside County | |||
| Moreno Valley | 3 | $910,535* | $303,512 |
| Riverside | 14 | $3,451,041 | $246,502 |
| Los Angeles County | |||
| Burbank | 11 | $3,614,447 | $328,586 |
| Compton | 4 | Not Online | Unknown |
| Culver City | 4 | $1,779,809 | $444,952 |
| Glendale | 13 | $3,720,156* | $286,165 |
| Hawthorne | 3.6** | $551,447 | $153,179 |
| Inglewood | 10** | $2,342,133** | $234,213 |
| Long Beach | 22 | $8,585,107 | $390,232 |
| Long Beach City Prosecutor | 17 | $4,824,978* | $283,822 |
| Los Angeles | 444 | $94,950,894* | $213,853 |
| Palmdale | 2 | $3,988,760 | $1,994,380 |
| Pasadena | 20 | $6,467,000* | $323,350 |
| Redondo Beach | 6 | $2,496,915* | $416,152 |
| Santa Monica | 24.5 | $8,672331* | $353,972 |
| Torrance | 6 | $2,160,322* | $360,054 |
| Orange | |||
| Anaheim | 23 | $5,592,143 | $243,137 |
| Huntington Beach | 7 | $2,311,624* | $330,232 |
| Newport Beach | 5.7 | $2,298,563.87*** | $403,256 |
| Orange | 4 | $1,411,049* | $352,762 |
| Santa Ana | 8.5 | $2,081,395* | $244,870 |
| Ventura County | |||
| Oxnard | 5 | $1,336,917* | $267,383 |
| Simi Valley | 4 | $983,400* | $245,850 |
| Thousand Oaks | 4 | $1,564,032* | $391,008 |
| Ventura | 4 | $1,711,112 | $427,778 |
| San Diego County | |||
| Carlsbad | 4 | $1,336,460* | $334,115 |
| Chula Vista | 8 | $2,271,182 | $283,898 |
| Escondido | 7 | $1,873,925 | $267,703 |
| National City | 2.5 | $703,760 | $281,504 |
| Oceanside | 6 | $1,535,860 | $255,977 |
| San Diego | 147 | $42,442,992* | $288,728 |
| Vista | 3 | $1,011,603 | $337,201 |
| Imperial | |||
| El Centro | 3** | $588,772** | $196,257 |
| * 2011-2012 Proposed |
| ** 2010-2011 Adopted |
| *** Includes Outside Counsel budget |
The City of Palmdale’s City Attorney’s Office bares more scrutiny. Looking back at it, it has a category of “operating expenses” without a detailed break-out of what that entails. However, even if it includes outside counsel (like Newport Beach), the number seems high. Perhaps litigation reserves are included in the City Attorney’s budget? The City’s budget gives the personnel expenditures of $822,060. That includes two lawyers, and 4.16 positions in total. The price per attorney for just salaries, wages, and similar would be $411,030 per attorney, still higher than the average.
The information you obtain at this blog is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is established by reading or commenting on this blog. You should consult an attorney for advice regarding your individual situation.
About Michael Reiter, Attorney at Law
Michael Reiter, Municipal Attorney. Partner with Cole Huber, LLP in Ontario, Roseville California 