08-08-18 Personnel and Finance (#2)

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®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK what is able to be gotten rid of to save the City time and money. We have done an outstanding job this ye by getting rid of eight(8) suits in one (1) year. Councilmember Jo M. Broden asked,The collections by an outside agency,what is that total dollar amount in terms of that contract? How is that negotiated? Is it on an annual basis or is it a five (5) year contract? Ms. Steele replied, So we actually work with the firm on a contingency basis. So we evaluate each year how it is going. They do receive a portion of what is collected but they are able to devote all of their time and resources to collections. That saves the City a lot of time and resources from having to do that in-house. They have paralegals, staff and attorneys whose only job is to collect on these. We work on a contingency basis and we are still able to recover quite a significant amount. Councilmember Broden followed up, So are we kicking out hardest to recover items to them? So there is nothing or very little done at the in-house level? Ms. Steele replied, That's not quite what I meant. I apologize if I made you think that. So, the departments are all working to collect these funds on their end. They then send them to the Legal Department if they are unable to recover. We evaluate then, and make sure all the paperwork is correct. If it is low-hanging fruit, we try to get them but if it is going to require concerted effort, we then outsource those to make sure our attorneys in-house can focus on the day-to-day functions. Councilmember Broden followed up, So no consideration,or,on an annual basis you look at those numbers in terms of what we are paying out, and there is no way to bring that in-house? Ms. Steele replied, So, we could bring that in-house but, as I said,they have two (2) attorneys that are devoted to this as well as several paralegals and assistants. So to bring that in-house to pay for itself,we would need a few more attorneys. This is the most cost-effective way as they just do this. Councilmember Broden interjected, So it's their level of expertise? Ok. And then, with regard to the interns, give me a feel for what the goals and objectives are for that part of your budget. How do you utilize them and why four(4) and not two (2), why not one (1)? Ms. Steele replied, As you may know, we have eight (8) attorneys and we share interns. Interns help us with things like quick turnaround on research, if there are matters that could be saving the attorney time and,thereby,the City money. We do take first(ls)shot at those things but they make it so that the attorneys devoted to the departments can devote even more of their attention to their department so we can be proactive. Much of this year has been spent trying to be proactive. By having interns, we are able to take care of tasks that don't necessarily need legal expertise. That makes it so that the City attorneys can focus more on the departments. Councilmember Broden stated, Thank you. And with regard to your page nine (9), department goals and objectives, you reference in that, `...implement new vendor and project management structures for larger environmental matters.' Could you explain what that means? Ms. Steele replied,One(1)of the things we had done this year was try to figure out how to decrease costs on our large environmental cases. We tried to bring a consultant in-house, kind of, for lack EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 46601 I p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 TM574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 7