Cities and counties: legal services: contingency fee contracts.

Existing law authorizes a city to hire a city attorney or a county to hire a county counsel for the representation of the city or county in legal matters. This bill would require a city council or the board of supervisors of a county to, prior to entering into a contingency fee contract for legal services relating to civil litigation initiated by the city or county, make a determination that use of a contingency fee contract would be cost-effective and in the public interest. The bill would require this determination to be supported by specified findings and would require any contract entered into by the city or county for legal services on a contingency fee basis under these provisions to meet specified requirements and would provide that any contingency fee shall be calculated on the basis of the judgment amount excluding any award for fine, civil penalty, or punitive damages. The California Constitution requires local agencies, for the purpose of ensuring public access to the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies, to comply with a statutory enactment that amends or enacts laws relating to public records or open meetings and contains findings demonstrating that the enactment furthers the constitutional requirements relating to this purpose. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.