Antioch Council approves $326K for outside law firms, personnel investigation since Dec. 1
Largest amount spent to defend city against lawsuit by natural gas pipeline companies
By Allen D. Payton
In an attempt to determine the reason the Antioch City Council voted to place City Manager Con Johnson on paid administrative leave during their meeting Tuesday night, March 14, 2023, which was finalized in a revote on March 17, a review of the past three months of Council Warrants, which are the City’s expenses per department the council votes on was conducted. Between Dec. 1, 2022 and March 2, 2023, almost $321,000 was spent on outside legal counsel and over $5,000 on a personnel investigation. Antioch City Attorney Warrants 12-01 thru 12-29-22 Antioch City Attorney Warrants 12-30 thru 01-12-23 Antioch City Attorney Warrants 1-13 thru 2-2-23 Antioch City Attorney & Human Resources Warrants 2-2 thru 3-2-23
On Tuesday’s meeting agenda it shows in the Council Warrants report Feb. 2-March 2, 2023 under the City Attorney category, $96,252.37 was paid for Legal Services Rendered to 11 law firms, and under the Human Resources category $5,166.25 for Investigative Fees paid to Barry Aninag Investigations. Mr. Aninag’s LinkedIn profile shows his company “offers independent, impartial, and thorough investigations into allegations of employee misconduct, harassment, and hostile work environments.”
The Council Warrants on the Feb. 14, 2023 agenda for Jan. 13-Feb. 2, 2023 show $41,118.43 for legal services; the Jan. 24th council meeting agenda shows $41,930.76 in legal services for Dec. 30, 2022-Jan. 12, 2023 and the Jan. 10th council meeting agenda shows $141,472.97 paid for legal services incurred Dec. 1-29, 2022.
That’s a total of $320,774.53 in legal services plus the cost of the personnel investigation in the past three months for a grand total of $325,940.78.
Questions for City Attorney, Acting City Manager
That information and questions were sent Wednesday to City Attorney Smith and Acting City Manager Cortez, and copied to the council members, City Finance Director Dawn Merchant and City Treasurer Lauren Posada asking for what cases are the expenses and if any of them or the investigation is related to Johnson. Smith and Cortez were also asked if it is normal for the City to spend over $100,000 per month on average for outside legal counsel.
Councilman Barbanica, who said he spoke with City Attorney Smith who said, “the bulk of this ($108,248.82) is to Meyers Nave to defend the City against the litigation on the CRC natural gas pipeline from the 3-2 council vote to deny the renewal of the franchise agreement.”
“Which I voted against, by the way,” the councilman added.
“The payments to Hanson Bridgett are for ongoing labor and employment investigations and the Telecom Law Firm is for dealing with leases related to cell towers and other telecommunications in the city,” Barbanica continued.
The total over the past three months paid to Hanson Bridgett LLP was $74,132.59 and $9,101.50 to Telecom Law Firm PC. In addition, $64,362.70 was paid to Liebert Cassidy Whitmore. According to their website the firm “provides unparalleled education, training, litigation and advisory services to California’s public agencies, educational institutions and nonprofits.”
Smith was asked which of those services they are providing to the City of Antioch.
“A city our size has an understaffed attorney’s office with two attorneys and one assistant. So, a lot of this has to be farmed out because of that. If you look at Vallejo and Richmond, they have more than double the number of attorneys and assistants than we do,” he added. “It’s a lot of money.”
Smith did not respond by publication time. Please check back for any updates to this report.
the attachments to this post:
Antioch City Attorney & Human Resources Warrants 2-2 thru 3-2-23
Antioch City Attorney Warrants 1-13 thru 2-2-23
Antioch City Attorney Warrants 12-30 thru 01-12-23
Antioch City Attorney Warrants 12-01 thru 12-29-22
Antioch City Attorney Warrants 12-01 thru 12-29-22
Antioch City Attorney Warrants 12-30 thru 01-12-23
Antioch City Attorney Warrants 01-13 thru 02-02-23
Antioch City Attorney & Human Resources Warrants 02-02 thru 03-02-23