Hello IMLA Elected Attorney Group- We had an excellent meeting on Monday the 13th, covering a number of topics. One was the authority of an elected local government attorney to hire outside counsel. On that point, Mara Elliott, City Attorney of San Diego, was kind enough to provide several very useful memos issued by that office over the years-including a discussion of efforts to deprive the elected attorney of authority, and the city council's assertion that it can hire outside council without authorization of the city attorney. Links to those memos are below, and they will also be placed in the IMLA dropbox: http://docs.sandiego.gov/memooflaw/ML-2008-9.pdf<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__docs.sandiego.gov_memooflaw_ML-2D2008-2D9.pdf&d=DwMF-g&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=wHAhbqBFHzsO8mvV5Fr_pQ&m=YQkA-T_Nu2CXLSbH2dEO-uDrDjFjoQRKFjsg5ZmIUkU&s=wvttXxtp8Sbc8z63RZ0Zp05pQXgjnKjCFRx3rYOkay0&e=> (on budgeting) http://docs.sandiego.gov/memooflaw/ML-2007-10.pdf<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__docs.sandiego.gov_memooflaw_ML-2D2007-2D10.pdf&d=DwMF-g&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=wHAhbqBFHzsO8mvV5Fr_pQ&m=YQkA-T_Nu2CXLSbH2dEO-uDrDjFjoQRKFjsg5ZmIUkU&s=atEFhFXVpN61pjWTWnbK_Yo_mYuqMJHp4w_Wb-e5XWc&e=> (hiring outside counsel) http://docs.sandiego.gov/cityattorneyreports/RC-95-19.pdf<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__docs.sandiego.gov_cityattorneyreports_RC-2D95-2D19.pdf&d=DwMF-g&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=wHAhbqBFHzsO8mvV5Fr_pQ&m=YQkA-T_Nu2CXLSbH2dEO-uDrDjFjoQRKFjsg5ZmIUkU&s=NEKk4qQHR0CDdkB0RqVmi-Xb7sYrGDUbsCyxDhht4DU&e=> (council attempt to take away City Attorney's duties) http://docs.sandiego.gov/memooflaw/ML-2010-21.pdf<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__docs.sandiego.gov_memooflaw_ML-2D2010-2D21.pdf&d=DwMF-g&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=wHAhbqBFHzsO8mvV5Fr_pQ&m=YQkA-T_Nu2CXLSbH2dEO-uDrDjFjoQRKFjsg5ZmIUkU&s=-wZNiB7x71nhyy9sSdlB8jQ-MC1t4FIzA6tK7lVQsOI&e=> (role of City Attorney) http://docs.sandiego.gov/legalopinions/LO-2008-1.pdf<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__docs.sandiego.gov_legalopinions_LO-2D2008-2D1.pdf&d=DwMF-g&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=wHAhbqBFHzsO8mvV5Fr_pQ&m=YQkA-T_Nu2CXLSbH2dEO-uDrDjFjoQRKFjsg5ZmIUkU&s=nAVXCnrr5HAzLZCPhJhj9UOI5AV8aGXF7xxbLK0aDjY&e=> (City Attorney authority to initiate litigation; Mara notes that she always gets council approval unless initiating litigation on behalf of the People in consumer and nuisance cases) http://docs.sandiego.gov/legalopinions/LO-2020-1.pdf<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__docs.sandiego.gov_legalopinions_LO-2D2020-2D1.pdf&d=DwMF-g&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=wHAhbqBFHzsO8mvV5Fr_pQ&m=YQkA-T_Nu2CXLSbH2dEO-uDrDjFjoQRKFjsg5ZmIUkU&s=b0i1BDzrLfgxgAUGAgQImUuDEYvL52sP6d4aBQpN6S0&e=> (refuting City council's authority to retain its own outside counsel without City Attorney approval) We also touched on the issue of homelessness and the particularly challenging environment for Ninth Circuit jurisdictions after City of Boise. In that regard, Mara reported that her team will be touring an Arizona facility that may provide a model for addressing the problem: https://hsc-az.org/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__hsc-2Daz.org_&d=DwMF-g&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=wHAhbqBFHzsO8mvV5Fr_pQ&m=YQkA-T_Nu2CXLSbH2dEO-uDrDjFjoQRKFjsg5ZmIUkU&s=8adkdzXPzEuaHA2H8qd9KenGWewH-d0R1PHaDYJWcCM&e=> The Group's next meeting is April 17, and the Group will receive an update on the merits and possibilities of the Arizona model. Thanks to all for an informative meeting and thanks again to Mara and her office for such useful documentation- Erich [logo]<https://imla.org/> [facebook icon]<https://www.facebook.com/InternationalMunicipalLawyersAssociation/>[twitter icon]<https://twitter.com/imlalegal>[linkedin icon]<https://www.linkedin.com/company/international-municipal-lawyers-association-inc./> Erich Eiselt (he/him) Assistant General Counsel / Director of Legal Advocacy International Municipal Lawyers Association P: (202) 466-5424 x7108 D: (202) 742-1017 51 Monroe Street, Suite 404, Rockville, MD 20850 Plan Ahead! See IMLA's upcoming events<https://imla.org/events/>, calls and programming. Check out our On-Demand webinar library<https://netforum.avectra.com/eweb/shopping/shopping.aspx?site=imla&webcode=shopping&cart=0&shopsearchCat=Merchandise&productCat=Webinar> with 100+ webinars at your fingertips!