Legal (City Attorney's Office)

Department Description
The Boise City Attorney's Office (CAO) is dedicated to being the model public service law firm in Idaho, and its 5-Year Business Plan demonstrates the intent to provide high-quality legal services to the City of Boise. The CAO provides the City with civil legal services and also prosecutes criminal misdemeanors and traffic infractions. Many staff members in the office practice both civil and criminal work.

Civil legal services

• Advise and defend the City in matters of litigation

• Support departments of the City in ordinance and contract drafting and review

• Advise and support the City in legislative matters as lobbyists

• Represent, advise, and support the Mayor and City Council with public records and open meetings law compliance
   

Criminal legal services

• Advise and train police and code enforcement officers

• Screen and charge crimes investigated by the Police Department

• Prosecute criminal and code enforcement cases
   

The CAO is physically structured to most effectively meet the mission and deliver the desired service level. In order to provide the most expert and focused legal service in the areas of civil litigation and land-use law, divisions have been created to specialize in these areas without having day-to-day criminal responsibilities. Three other divisions provide substantial civil-oriented legal advice while managing substantial criminal caseloads.
 

Mission Statement
To be the model public service law firm and provide the highest-quality legal services to our clients and customers in a timely, responsive, and ethical manner.
 

Strengths

• The City Attorney's Office (CAO) has talented, dedicated and experienced attorneys and staff who excel in their work.
• The CAO has the ability to handle complex criminal and civil litigation and as well as highly technical human resource, public works, real estate acquisition (both for the Parks & Recreation Department and in the Foothills), and land use planning issues. It is in the City's best interest to retain as much of this legal work as possible, since outside contracts ultimately are more costly and provide the City with less direct control in the outcome of its legal work.
• In addition, the CAO's prosecutorial contract with Meridian has enabled the Department to increase its resources at no cost to Boise and to provide additional court coverage that had not been funded previously.
  The CAO has developed strong relationships with the other City Departments, based on informal surveying done by the City Attorney and Chief Deputy.
• The CAO also has strong relationships with outside agencies, including the Ada County Prosecutor's office, Garden City's City Attorney, the FACES organization, etc.
• Finally, the CAO has improved its credibility with its clients and customers. They have become more comfortable relying on the expertise they have in-house rather than seeking outside counsel on basic issues.
   

Weaknesses

• Ada County's Trial Court Administration drives the CAO's resource allocation by the number of court appearances that it sets. The office is obligated to meet the Court's mandatory time frames and appearances. As criminal caseloads have continued to grow, the Court has added additional courtrooms and explored other ways to handle certain types of cases, including felony Drug Court and the new Family Violence Court which hears both civil and misdemeanor cases that are related to domestic violence. Unfortunately, the CAO's staff hours are frequently dedicated to its criminal responsibilities which impact the amount of resources available for civil assignments. Many Departments have commented on their need for more civil time from the CAO's attorneys.
• As other City Departments and their legal needs grow, evolve, and become more complex, the CAO's resources will face an ever increasing challenge to meet the legal needs of the City. When more police officers are hired, when the Council annexes land and/or purchases, when the City pursues judicial confirmations and reviews - all of these impact the office workload and affect staffing availability.
• The CAO must be positioned to retain its qualified staff and quickly recruit to replace any turnover with similarly or better qualified candidates. With the recent Wages and Benefit team's changes to the payscale, the CAO's attorneys and staff are finally paid more closely to what their counterparts in state and local government make. However, to ensure ongoing equity, the CAO will continue to work with the Wages and Benefits team to ensure that they have the most current information on wages and benefits so that Legal is in a better position to recruit and retain quality legal staff.
• Because the criminal staffing level drives the office's workload assignments, often the CAO managers are required to play two roles - to perform line work and to perform management work. Until the office is sufficiently staffed so that its criminal obligations are met, these managers will always be required to divide their time, which reduces their effectiveness as managers.
   

Opportunities

• In the past, the CAO has contracted with the City of Meridian to provide prosecution and legal criminal support. With the additional revenue, Legal has hired additional attorney and secretarial staff who not only handle the additional Meridian work, but also Boise cases as well. Legal can continue to look at providing legal services to other entities on a contract basis for increased revenue diversification; however, that does have the potential to depart from the CAO's core mission of serving the citizens of Boise.
  
  

Threats

• Again, the CAO's criminal responsibilities drive its resource allocation. As criminal caseloads continue to rise and as the Trial Court Administration continues to set additional court appearances, the Department is compelled to assign more attorney resources to the prosecutorial functions which in turn will impact the provision of civil work.
• So, too, the amount and complexity of the City's civil litigation has and undoubtedly will continue to increase. Cases involving Section 1983 claims, tort claims, annexation, city property, and construction projects, among many others, dot the legal landscape the City is facing. With every annexation, we have a judicial review; with every monument we remove, we have lawsuit layered upon lawsuit; with every capital improvement, we have a judicial confirmation or a lawsuit to challenge our action.
• It is imperative that your legal department have the expertise to ensure that the actions of the Mayor and Council are legally sound and upheld in the likely event of a challenge. Without the ability to hire and retain prosecutors, experienced civil litigators, as well as Public Safety, Human Resource, Public Works, Enterprise, and Land Use attorneys, the CAO simply could continue to meet the City's legal needs.
• Any reduction in CAO's staffing would seriously threaten its ability to do so. It is critical that the CAO be able to attract and retain qualified and experienced staff.