LIHU‘E — Adding another staff attorney or two to the county’s in-house law firm could actually save taxpayers money if it means fewer cases are assigned to costly special outside counsel, County Attorney Al Castillo told the Cost Control Commission
LIHU‘E — Adding another staff attorney or two to the county’s in-house law firm could actually save taxpayers money if it means fewer cases are assigned to costly special outside counsel, County Attorney Al Castillo told the Cost Control Commission on Monday.
“Although this county has 10 attorneys, we’re not knowledgeable in every single thing,” Castillo said at the commission’s regular monthly meeting at the Mo‘ikeha Building in Lihu‘e. “We try to do things in-house first … (but) you almost have to be an expert.”
Through the first eight months of Fiscal Year 2010, the County Council has approved some $400,000 outside of the operating budget for special counsel, down considerably from more than $1.4 million approved in Fiscal Year 2009 and $825,000 in Fiscal Year 2008, according to a document provided by Castillo.
“We do things in-house more than we’ve done in the past,” said Castillo, who was sworn in as the county’s top lawyer in March 2009.
He has said on multiple occasions that he would like a litigation team, and clarified that such a team would likely include at least two attorneys and two support staff. This year, deputy county attorneys were budgeted to make up to $94,454 apiece, not including some benefits as well as space and equipment costs.
How much a litigation team would save the county in outside attorney fees is unclear. Castillo said specialized fields, like the recent bond float, and conflicts of interest would be sent outside unavoidably, but said a team handling lawsuits could be beneficial as “this is a litigious society.”
In the current fiscal year, the County Attorney’s office has only engaged special counsel on two occasions, said Beth Tokioka, the mayor’s administrative assistant. Each one involved a potential conflict of interest for the staff attorneys. Had those potential conflicts of interest not existed, the cases would have been handled in-house.
The CCC asked Castillo to run a litigation history analysis on recent years’ expenditures in advance of the commission’s April meeting. He warned there is no “magic number” or secret formula.
2011 budget
The structure of the Office of the County Attorney will be one of many issues addressed when Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. sends the Kaua‘i County Council his Fiscal Year 2011 budget submittal next week.
Carvalho has said he has asked all county departments to cut 5 percent from their current budgets during this challenging fiscal time, but a department-by-department breakdown of budget requests or new proposed positions has not been circulated publicly.
Tokioka said Monday that the mayor’s office is not in a position to comment on the budget yet because it is “very much in flux right now.”
Last year, the mayor and council added one fully-funded deputy county attorney position (supporting KPD), and two “dollar funded” positions that were intended to be used by the Departments of Water and Liquor Control (using their funding) in FY10, Tokioka said. As of this fiscal year (FY10) there is one additional attorney supporting KPD, and one additional county attorney supporting Water through their funds (the Liquor position did not materialize but is still dollar-funded).
Cost Control Commission members encouraged Castillo to allow them to help him streamline his department, maximize efficiency and save the county money.
“Sometimes cutting cuts off a hand that writes,” Commission Vice Chair Sandi Sterker told Castillo. “Sometimes spending a little money can save money.”
Budget and Finance Committee Chair Daryl Kaneshiro said Monday that it is possible the council could decide to add positions to the Office of the County Attorney or any other department if it believes that it could end up saving the county money.
“Hypothetically, I agree that it could be better for us” to hire litigation attorneys rather than contract outside counsel, he said. “From my standpoint as the chair of finance, you’ve got to save some place. … (You can) pick up people on one side and save on the other side.
“It’s a possibility, but it depends on the cases involved,” Kaneshiro said.
• Michael Levine, assistant news editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or mlevine@kauaipubco.com.
