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Agenda 09/29/2009 Item #12A Agenda Item No. 12A I September 29, 2009 Page 1 of 40 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The annual performance appraisal for the County Attorney OBJECTIVE: To complete the annual performance appraisal for the County Attorney. CONSIDERATIONS: The County Attorney reports directly to the Board of County Commissioners. In order to assure that his work performance is coordinated with the direction of the full Board, an annual appraisal is conducted. An annual work plan (Action Plan) was developed. The County Attorney has provided a commentary and self-appraisal as a starting point for this year's appraisal. He has met individually (when required) with each Board member to discuss the past year's performance to determine what elements Board members recommend or direct to be performed better or - differently and what aspects of the office operation were done well. A compilation of the Commissioners' evaluation is included along with the general comments and suggestions. The County Attorney Employment Agreement provides that on the date general wage adjustments are granted generally to the Collier County employees, the County Attorney base salary shall be modified to reflect the general wage adjustment granted to other County employees. Merit pay is also available if the Board feels that the County Attorney has "met" or "exceeded" the Board's expectations. Merit pay can be awarded from 3% (minimum) to a 10% (maximum). By the existing contract, all such merit adjustments shall be included in the County Attorney's base salary. However, to be consistent with the cost savings predicted by budget cuts for FY09, the County Attorney voluntarily requests that no merit pay be considered. FISCAL IMP ACT: Funding for the County Attorney's salary is available in his office budget. GROWTH MANAGEMENT IMPACT: There is no growth management impact associated with this item. RECOMMENDATION: That the Board of County Commissioners completes the annual performance appra" al proce for the County Attorney. Prepared by: J effre A. latzkow, County Attorney Page 1 of 1 Agenda Item No. 12A September 29. 2009 Page 2 of 40 COLLIER COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Item Number: 12A Item Summary: The annual performance appraisal for the County Attorney. Meeting Date: 9/29/2009 9:00:00 AM Prepared By Jeff Klatzkow County Attorney Date County Attorney County Attorney Office 8/7/20099:48:02 AM Approved By Jeff Klatzkow County Attorney Date County Attorney County Attorney Office 9/22/2009 3:20 PM Approved By OMB Coordinator OMB Coordinator Date County Manager's Office Office of Management & Budget 9/22/2009 3:42 PM Approved By John A. Yonkosky Director of the Office of Management Date County Manager's Office Office of Management & Budget 9/22/20093:51 PM Approved By Leo E. Ochs, Jr. Deputy County Manager Date Board of County Commissioners County Manager's Office 9/22/20096:14 PM file://C:\Agendatest\export\ 135-September 29, 2009\ 12. COUNTY ATTORNEY REPORT\... 9/23/2009 Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 Page 3 of 40 Evaluation completed by Commissioner Tom Henning the performance objectives on a I to 3 scale, with 1 being Below Standards; 2 being Meets Staridards' and 3 being Exceeds Standards FY 2008 / 2009 Action Plan - Self Evaluation Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney The County Attorney is charged with the responsibility of planning, directing and reviewing the activities and operations of the Office of the County Attorney. The County Attorney is the legal advisor and counsel for the Board of County Commissioners, its advisory boards and advisory committees. The County Attorney also provides legal counsel to and assists the County Manager and his agencies in order to facilitate the . goals and objectives established for the County Manager by the Board of County Commissioners. The County Attorney, through the assistant county attorneys and supporting staff, represent the County in wide-ranging complex litigation relating to implementation of government policies and capital projects, eminent domain, personal injury, property damage, workplace/personnel matters, finance and land use. In addition to litigation, he is counsel to the County's divisions and departments for their daily operations. In this regard, the County Attorney is responsible for the review of all policy documents (resolutions), legislation (ordinances and special acts), and the drafting, legal review and revision of all contracts, real property conveyance documents and other Board signatory documents. The County Attorney's Employment Agreement with the Board of County Commissioners provides for an annual evaluation of the County Attorney's performance. By custom, this performance has been measured against performance objectives set forth in that year's annual Action Plan, by rating each of the performance objectives on a I to 3 scale, with I being Below Standards; 2 being Meets Standards; and 3 being Exceeds Standards. Individual evaluations are then totaled and averaged to determine the Board's collective position. The following Action Plan illustrates and reviews Board expectations for the County Attorney from the date of my taking this Office, April 23, 2008, through September 2009. The Action Plan is based on the broad areas generally expected to be performed by the Managing Partner of a significant law firm, including: legal advice; leadership and organizational direction;' communications; fiscal management; and personnel management. _. Page 1 of 12 Agenda Item No, 12A September 29, 2009 Page 4 of 40 Goals for Fiscal Year 2008-09: I have and will continue to initiate changes to create a more efficient work environment. This will include hiring and retaining the best employees, focusing on how to conduct business with better customer service results and making internal changes that result in a more efficient and effective work product. The County Attorney Office has already been restructured to assure that Requests for Legal Services are completed promptly, and that there will be overlapping areas of expertise within the Office. This effort will require further improvements in our planning, assignment of responsibilities, and establishment of accountability to assure continued enhancement within the agency. Specific areas that I propose as part of next year's action plan are: 1. Oral Presentations at Meetings. I will work to assure that both the County Attorney's and the County Attorney Office's presentations at Board of County Commissioners' meetings, advisory board meetings, and workshops are clear, concise and effective. All presenters will be charged with making presentations that avoid legalese and focus on the legal issue in a simple, understandable and brief manner. Self Analysis: This Office has adopted the County Manager's "three B's" advice to his staff with respect to Board presentations; that you Be Brief, Be Brilliant, and Be Gone. An ongoing discussion at this Office is peer evaluation of our responses and presentations at Board meetings to help identify when we have not been as concise, clear and responsive as we would wish. I have seen improvement in this area. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Ratina x Thank you for giving direct understandable answer to question to Board Members. Our Meeting would be more productive if all would take your lead. Page 2 of 12 --. Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 Page 5 of 40 2. Written Legal Advice. Both the County Attorney and the County Attorney Office will provide professional, objective, unbiased legal advice to the Board of County Commissioners, its advisory boards and committees, the County Manager and his agencies and employees as necessary for formulation and implementation of legislative policies and projects. Responses will avoid legalese and focus on the legal issue in a simple, understandable and brief manner. Self Analysis All attorneys have been directed to keep their writingt as much as legally possiblet c1eart concise, and to the point. I have seen improvement in this area. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Rating x On items for Commissioners shall vote on such as contracts, ordinance, agreements and land-use need a more in-depth consideration when reviewed by the County Attorney's office LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS: This item has been reviewed and approved by the County Attorney's Office. This item is not quasi-judicial, and as such ex parte disclosure is not required. This item requires majority vote only. This item is legally sufficient for Board action 3. Processing Requests for Legal Services. Utilizing our electronic records system, we determined that for the period April through June 2007, the average turnaround for an RLS (Request for Legal Services) was 11 days, with 3% of all RLS's being processed in 48 hours Page 3 of 12 n_ Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 Page 6 of 40 or less. Smaller samples taken from prior years showed that an II-day turnaround has been a longstanding practice with the Office. I find this unacceptable. On a going forward basis, this Office will achieve an ongoing 48-hour (or less) turnaround time on 75% of all future Requests for Legal Services received from the Board of County Commissioners and County Manager agencies. A report will be run from Client Profiles (this Office's data management system) to determine turnaround time. This will include preparation and review of documents for legal sufficiency prior to consideration by the Board of County Commissioners for Board action, including, but not limited to, agreements, contracts, deeds, leases, bonds, ordinances, resolutions, and other legal documents requested by County Commissioners, the County Manager, or the staff. Self Analysis It required a challenging fe\Y..ll1onths to change this Office's culture on processing work. The graphs below show the general increase in response time. Completed RLSs 120% 100% 80% 40.'" 20% 0% I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ;: f ~ I /. /' /' /" f I- /" I" ~ l f ~ ~ ~ It. 1___ Percent of RLSs completed within 48 hours I The above graph shows the percentage of Requests for Legal Services that were completed within 48 hours. May and June 2008 were 50% and 49% respectively. Since August 2008, the percentage has stayed above 80%. The next graph shows the actual number of Requests for Legal Services received and closed each month between May 2008 and July 2009. March and April 2009 show more closed than received due to a carryover of Requests from prior months being closed. Page 4 of 12 Agenda Item No, 12A September 29, 2009 Page 7 of 40 RLSs Received and Closed May, 2008 through May, 2009 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 'It#' ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ # # ~ ~ # ~ # ~'1>~' 0' ~. ~. J'\' (fl' J'\' ~. ~. !::\. ~. ~. '1>~' 0' ~. ~.:>~ ~;j ~ 'If' !f:' / IS .sf''I> ~ 'fiI ~ ~.:>~ ~.:; tfi IX'" cP &fli 'l" <<fli ~ r:.J> ~ 18RLSs Received ORLSs Closed , .......'~ As always, a number of legal assignments, due to their complex nature, take weeks and even months to complete. r believe that the Office has fully achieved my goals in this area, the results of which I believe are demonstrated in the next Goal and Objective, which is Client Satisfaction/Peer Review. I intend to maintain this standard. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 r Ratina x Page 5 of 12 .--.---+... - --- Agenda Item No, 12A September 29. 2009 Page 8 of 40 4. Client Satisfaction! Peer Review. During my first month as County Attorney, performance evaluation reports were sent to the various Division Administrators and Managers to assess performance of each attorney in the Office. As a result of negative comments, a number of Assistant County Attorneys had their duties reassigned. Client satisfaction will be a major goal of this Office. We will strive for a 75% rating level for clients who feel services exceeded expectations or were exceptional. The results for this satisfaction rating will be calculated by a questionnaire sent to Division Administrators and Department Directors prior to the evaluation coming back before the Board of County Commissioners. Attorneys who consistently deliver outstanding performance will be rewarded, and those Attorneys who can not achieve satisfactory reviews by their clients despite multiple reassignments will eventually leave the Office. Client reviews will factor into each of the Assistant County Attorney's performance evaluations. In short, the County Attorney will ensure that Assistant County Attorneys and support staff are motivated to work to their full potential, that excellent performance will be recognized and rewarded, and that poor performance will not be tolerated. Self Analysis An Attorney-Client Feedback form was provided to the County Manager, Division Administrators, and select Department Directors to solicit their opinions regarding the services they receive from the County Attorney Office. These results are utilized to shift workloads if departments are not satisfied with our services; they are also utilized in the attorney's individual annual performance evaluations. Below is a chart showing a comparison of 2008 and 2009 overall client feedback. Comparison of 2008 and 2009 Attorney - Client Feedback Overall Results 60% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% NlA Does Not Meet Meets Exceeds I_ 2008 I!lI 2009 I Page 6 of 12 .----. Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 Page 9 of 40 Below is a chart showing the 2009 Attorney - Client Feedback Results and the individual categories the divisions I departments were requested to rate. 2009 Attorney - Client Feedback Results 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 I -Exceeds IllIMeets oDoesNotMeet oN/A I I - The attorne This office has made substantial improvement in overall client satisfaction. I intend to continue working to improve this area. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 r Ratina x - Page 7 of 12 Agenda Item No, 12A September 29, 2009 Page 10 of 40 5. Fiscal Management. I will continue to develop and effectively administer an annual budget for the Office of the County Attorney in conformance with policies adopted by the Board of County Commissioners, while at the same time improving the quality of this Office. The 2009 budget that I presented to the Board came in at 4.1 % less than the prior year's; which exceeded Board direction of 2%. Self Analysis During the Fiscal Year prior to my becoming County Attorney (2008), this Office's budget for Personal Services was $3,173,600, with 13 Attorneys and 18 Support Staff. Next year's proposed budget for Personal Services seeks $2,575,300, with 10 Attorneys and 15 Support Staff. This represents an almost 19% reduction in personnel costs, and was accomplished with no loss in service through voluntary attrition and by closing our offices at CDES to consolidate this Office's operations. The proposed budget contains permanent cuts of 8 positions, with 1 budgeted but unfilled Attorney position. This position will likely need to be filled when normal activity resumes in permitting and land use. It is my intent to continue to permanently reduce this Office's Support Staff through normal attrition until I reach a ratio of approximately 1 Support Staff person per Attorney, which my research has found is typical throughout County Attorney Offices in this State. Utilizing a portion of our savings in Personnel Costs, I increased outside counsel expenses in this year's budget from $100,000 to $200,000 in anticipation of defending several actions most notably the Hussey matter, a Bert Harris claim in excess of $90,000,000. Any unused funds budgeted for outside counsel will be returned to the Board. I did not request any funds for Capital Outlay. With staff reductions, we have surplus computers and printers which will be utilized to replace equipment when needed. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I RatinQ x Page 8 of 12 . ~--_. Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 Page 11 of 40 6. Public Records and Sunshine Law. This Office will educate and update County staff, and advisory board members through periodic workshops/seminars, (e.g. Sunshine Law, Public Records Act, State and local ethics law). Self Analysis I believe that I met this goal. By the end of August 2009, our attorneys will have made 18 presentations / workshops / seminars to County staff and advisory board members. 1. September 3, 2008 presentation to the zoning staff relating to conditions of approval; 2. September 15, 2008 presentation to the environmental staff relating to conditions of approval; 3. September 15, 2008 presentation to all advisory board members relating to Sunshine Law, Ethics, and Public Records Act; 4. Sept~mber 22, 2008 presentation to transportation staff relating to conditions of approval; 5. October 27,2008 presentation to zoning staff relating to fee simple ownership and'deeds; 6. November 3, 2008 presentation to zoning staff relating to advertising titles; 7. January 12,2009 presentation to zoning staff relating to SIC codes; 8. January 15, 2009 presentation to Leadership Collier relating to Ethics and Sunshine Law; 9. January 20,2009 presentation to the Clam Bay Advisory Committee relating to Sunshine Law and Public Records Act; 10. February 9, 2009 presentation to zoning staff relating to adverse possession, easements by necessity and searching the Clerk's records; 11. February 19,2009 presentation to the Clam Bay Advisory Committee relating to Ethics; 12. March 18,2009 presentation to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board relating to Ethics; 13. March 26, 2009 presentation to the Pollution Control staff relating to Sunshine Law, Ethics, and Public Records Act; 14. April 13, 2009 presentation to the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Committee relating to Sunshine Law and Public Records Act; 15. April 20, 2009 presentation for New Hire Orientation relating to Ethics. This presentation was videotaped to be presented at future New Hire Orientations; 16. April 20, 2009 presentation to the zoning staff relating to basic real estate and legal descriptions; and 17. June 8, 2009 presentation to the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Committee relating to Ethics. 18. August 20, 2009, presentation to Health and Human Services on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIP AA) Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Rating x - Page 9 of 12 ---~- --, Agenda Item No, 12A September 29, 2009 Page 12 of 40 7. Litigation. Commencing in September 2008, we will prepare and distribute concise quarterly reports for the Board with respect to current litigation, including potential or anticipated legal issues that may come before the Board of County Commissioners. Self Analysis I view this as a partial success. We literally started from scratch on this report, which I continue to modify in an attempt to meet the stated objectives. I have provided the Board with litigation update reports on November 5, 2008; March 31, 2009 and July 1,2009. The next report will be provided on October 1,2009. As you will have noted from those reports, this Office manages a substantial amount of litigation. As of the July 1, 2009, report there was a total of 282 cases. The chart below - shows how those cases are divided up by category. Litigation Maters as of July 1, 2009 9 17 36 160 III Complex . Land Use o Personal Injury o Code enforcement . Contracts iii Eminent Domain . Foreclsoures 13 Claims (no suit filed) . Bankruptcy As an aside, this Office is making' an effort to hire outside counsel firms that are located within Collier County. Although there are several outstanding firms that we can not utilize due to conflict issues, I believe that there are many talented attorneys within the County that Page 10 of 12 Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 Page 13 of 40 we can use, and with the exception of certain technical expertise that is locally unavailable, my goal over time is to utilize local counsel e~clusively. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Rating x - 8. Opinions File. For purposes of creating consistency in the legal opinions issued by this Office, and to eliminate duplication of work efforts, we will create an indexed, electronic -, County Attorney Legal Opinions Database, which will include past opinions of this Office and all future opinions. This will serve both as a resource tool when researching issues of law, as well as provide consistency of approach to our clients, saving time, manpower, and client frustration. Self Analysis I have been successful in creating and utilizing an Opinions database. To date, we have scanned 949 opinions - the oldest from 1982. Of these opinions 318 relate to ethics, 64 relate to public records, 70 relate to sunshine law and 5 relate to records retention. The other topics covered by the opinions are general administrative, advisory boards, Airport Authority, Board of County Commissioners, Budget, Community Development and Environmental Services, Conservation Collier, County Manager, Elections, Emergency Services, Public Services, Public Utilities, Real Property, Tourism, Transportation, and other. I have established as Office Policy a requirement that when any legal opinion is requested, the attorney is to first check the Opinions Database to see if the issue has been addressed previously. If it has, it is simply a matter of making sure the law is still valid and providing the prior opinion and any clarification to the requestor. This fosters the goals of obtaining consistency of approach to our clients, and saves time and labor. To reduce client frustration and misunderstandings, all opinions are required to be in writing. Requiring written opinions also acts as an incentive to carefully check the Opinions Database. Page 11 of 12 .-...... - ,~ Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 Page 14 of 40 Lastly, prior to a controversial or substantative opinion being issued, it must be reviewed by either the County Attorney or Deputy County Attorney to assure that all aspects of the issue have been contemplated and fully researched. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Rating x -~ Page 12 of 12 .. ..-.. Agenda Item No, 12A September 29, 2009 'Evaluation completed by Commissioner Donna Fiala Page 15 of 40 FY 2008 ! 2009 Action Plan - Self Evaluation Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney The County Attorney is charged with the responsibility of planning, directing and reviewing the activities and operations of the Office of the County Attorney. The County Attorney is the legal advisor and counsel for the Board of County Commissioners, itg advisory boards and advisory committees. The County Attorney also provides legal counsel to and assists the County Manager and his agencies in order to facilitate the goals and objectives established for the County -- Manager by the Board of County Commissioners. The County Attorney, through the assistant county attorneys and supporting staff, represent the County in wide-ranging complex litigation relating to implementation of government policies and capital projects, eminent domain, personal injury, property damage, workplace/personnel matters, finance and land use. In addition to litigation, he is counsel to the County's divisions and departments for their daily operations. In this regard, the County Attorney is responsible for the review of all policy documents (resolutions), legislation (ordinances and special acts), and the drafting, legal review and revision of all contracts, real property conveyance documents and other Board signatory documents. The County Attorney's Employment Agreement with the Board of County Commissioners provides for an annual evaluation of the County Attorney's performance. By custom, this performance has been measured against performance objectives set forth in that year's annual Action Plan, by rating each of the performance objectives on a I to 3 scale, with 1 being Below Standards; 2 being Meets Standards; and 3 being Exceeds Standards. Individual evaluations are then totaled and averaged to detennine the Board's collective position. The following Action Plan illustrates and reviews Board expectations for the County Attorney from the date of my taking this Office, April 23, 2008, through September 2009. The Action Plan is based on the broad areas generally expected to be performed by the Managing Partner of a significant law finn, including: legal advice; leadership and organizational direction; communications; fiscal management; and personnel management. - Page 1 of 12 ~_..,- Aoeno<'l Item No 12A September 29, 2009 Page 16 of 40 Goals for Fiscal Year 2008-09: I have and will continue to initiate changes to create a more efficient work environment. This will include hiring and retaining the best employees, focusing on how to conduct business with better customer service results and making internal changes that result in' a more efficient and effective work product. The County Attorney Office has already been restructured to assure that Requests for Legal Services are completed promptly, and that there will be overlapping areas of expertise within the Office. This effort will require further improvements in our planning, assignment of responsibilities, and establishment of accountability to assure continued enhancement within the agency. Specific areas that I propose as part of next year's action plan are: - 1. Oral Presentations at Meetings. I will work to assure that both the County Attorney's and the County Attorney Office's presentations at Board of County Commissioners' meetings, advisory board meetings, and workshops are cleat, concise and effectiye. All presenters will be charged with making presentations that avoid legalese and lOcus on the legal issue in a simple, understandable and brief manner. Self Analysis: This Office has adopted the County Manager's "three B"s" advice to nis .staff with respect to Board presentations; that you Be Brief. Be Brilliant, and Be Gone. An ongoing discussion at this Office is peer evaluation of our responses and presentations al Board meetings to help identify when we have not been as c.oncise, ckar and responsive as we would wish. I have seen improvement in this area. Coml11issioll,~r Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards r~~~r 1 2 3 , J~~' J {\7- yacee 7- 0 --- Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 I ' Page 17 of 40 2. Written Legal Advice. Both the County Attorney and the County Attorney Office will provide professional, objective, unbiased legal advice to the Board of County Commissioners, its advisory boards and committees, the County Manager and his agencies and employees as necessary for formulation and implementation of legislative policies and projects. Responses will avoid legalese and focus on the legal issue in a simple, understandable and brief manner. SdfAnalysis All attorneys have been directed to keep their writing, as much as legally possible, clear, ; concise, and to the point I have seen improvement in this area. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Ratina '1 - 3. Processing Requests for Legal Services. Utilizing our electronic records system, we determined that for the period April through June 2007, the average turnaround for an RLS (Request for Legal Services) was 11 days, with 3% of all RLS's being processed in 48 hours or less. Smaller samples taken from prior years showed that an It-day turnaround has been a longstanding practice with the Office. I find this unacceptable. On a going forward basis, this Office will achieve an ongoing 48-hour (or less) turnaround time on 75% of all future Requests for Legal Services received from the Board of County Commissioners and County Manager agencies. A report will be run from Client Profiles (this Office's data management system) to determine turnaround time. This will include preparation and review of documents for legal sufficiency prior to consideration by the Board of County Page 3 of 12 ~...~ Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 Page 18 of 40 Commissioners for Board action. including, but not limited to, agreements, contracts, deeds, leases, bonds, ordinances, resolutions, and other legal documents requested by County Commissioners, the County Manager, or the staff. Scl f A nul ysis It required a challenging few months to change this Office's culture on processing work. The graphs below ~how the general increase in response time. Completed RLSs 120"4 ! 100% 800/0 60% ~O% i 20% 00/0 I I I I I I I :l .f ~ 1 J' f t' I-+- Percent 0' RLSa CCl/TIpleted wtlhln.:48~ The above graph shows the percentage of Requests for Legal Services that were completed within 48 hours. May and June 2008 were 50% and 49% respectively, Since August 2008, the percentage has st<lyed above 80%. The next graph shows the actual number of Requests for Legal Services received and closed each month between May 2008 and July 2009. March and April 2009 show more closed than received due to a carryover of Requests from prior months being closed. Page 4 of 12 ...~-. Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 Page 19 of 40 RLSs Received and Closed May. 2008 through May, 2009 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 - 100 50 ~ 0 , , , , ~ , ~ ~. # , , ~ , , ~ ,p'\' ).#. )~' ~J-' ":J/./' /" ~;vI" /"" )Il" <</. #<i" ~~. ~~. )./" )~. C.RlSs Received CRlSs-Cio-;;;d] As always, a number of legal assignments, due to their complex nature, take weeks and even months to complete. r believe that the Office has fully achieved my goals in this area, the results of which I believe are demonstrated in the next Goal and Objective, which is Client Satisfaction/Peer Review, r intend to maintain this standard. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 r ~~ Ie- ~-6.~ wd:/.. ~ r:W' &t rl.. dLf~ AL ~ ,~wn-c . ,- Page 5 of 12 _..- Agenda Item No. 12A September 29,2009 Page 20 of 40 4. Client Satisfaction! Peer Review. During my first month as County Attorney. performance evaluation reports were sent to the various Division Administrators and Managers to assess performance of each attorney in the Office. As a result of negative comments; a number of Assistant County Attorneys had their duties reassigned. Client satisfaction will be a major goal of this Office. We .will strive for a 75% rating level for clients who feel services exceeded expectations or were exceptionaL The results for this satisfaction rating will be calculated by a questionnaire sent to Division Administrators and Department Directors prior to the evaluation coming back before the Board of County Commissioners. Attorneys who consistently deliver outstanding performance will be rewarded. and those Attorneys who can not achieve satisfactory reviews by their clients despite multiple reassignments will eventually leave the Office. Client reviews will factor into each of the Assistant County Attorney's performance evaluations. In short, the County Attorney will ensure that Assistant County Attorneys and support staff are motivated to work to their full potential, that excellent perfov;:ce will be recognized ~d rewarded, and that ~or performance will not ;:0 tolerat'.'!:;::; d ~ . .9 ~ :d.e -r;;- . ' SelIA,,"I,,;, tirM. ..,,~~~~~-t4r' . Ji'o~-b~ ,h..~~~' An Attorney-Client Feedback form W,lS provide to the County Manager, Division Administrarors, and select Depatt,ment Directors to solicit their opinions regarding the services they receive frOtH the County Attomcy Of.fice. These results are utilized to shift \vorkk)ads if dcpartlnents are not satisfied with our services; they are also utilized in the attorney's individual annual performance evaluations. Below is a chart showing a comparison of 2008 and 2009 overall client feedback. Comparison of 2008 and 2009 Attorney - Client Feedback Overall Results 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 1% 0% N1A Does Not Meet Meets Exceeds ! 18-26o~~~_~<<J.~sU J Page 6 of 12 --.---.. ~h.___.__ -..-.... Agenda Item No. 12A September 29,2009 Page 21 of 40 Below is a ch~lrt showing the 2009 Atlorney-. Client Feedback Results and the individual categories the divisions I depanments wc.re requested to rate. -...... -, -.-- I 2009 Attorney - Client Feedback Results 80% .' 70% 60%. 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 I- Exceed~_!'l Meets 0 ~~~~~t Meet 0 ~~J - 1 . The attome This o1Ticc has made substantial improvement in overall client satisfact.ion. J intend to continue \~'orking to improve this area. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards ~~~ 1 2 3 , ~ ~/-l Ii ~ ., ~ ~~~, ~ ~~. ~ ~l.;{", i] . . .I -k~~~Il~, ,~, Page 7 of12 ...-. - Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 Page 22 of 40 . 5. Fiscal Management. I will continue to develop and effectively administer an annual budget for the Office of the County Attorney in conformance with policies adopted by the Board of County Commissioners, while at the same time improving the quality of this Office. The 2009 budget that I presented to the Board came in at 4.1% less than the prior year's; which exceeded Board direction of 2%. Self Analysis During the l:iscal Year prior to my becoming County Attorney (2008), this Otlice's budget for Personal Services was $3,173.600, with 13 Attorneys and 18 Support Staff. Next year's 1 proposed budget for Personal Services seeks $2.575,300. with 10 Attorneys and 15 Support Staff. This represents an almost 19% reduction in personnel costs, and was accomplished with no loss in service through voluntary attrition and by closing our offices at CDES to consolidate this Office's operations. The proposed budget contains permanent cuts of 8 positions, with t budgeted but untJlled Attorney position. This position will likely need to be filled when nonnal activity resumes in permitting and land lIse. It is my intent to continue to permanently reduce this Oft'kc's Support Staff through normal attrition until 1 reach a ratio of approximately I Support Staff person per Attorney, which my research has found is typi(~al throughout County Attomey Offices in this State. Utilizing a portion of our savings in Personnel Costs, 1 increased outside counsel expenses in this year's budget from $100,000 to $200,000 in anticipation of defending several actions most notably the Hussey matter, a Bert Banis claim in excess of $90,000,000. Any unused funds budgeted for outside counsel will be returned to the Board. I did not request any funds for Capital ()utlay. With statT reductions, we have surplus computers and printers wbich will be utilized to replace equipment when needed. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards StandardS 1 2 3 r Ratina ~.=3 Page 8 of 12 Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 Page 23 of 40 6. Public Records and Sunshine Law. This Office will educate and update County staff:. and advisory board members through periodic workshops/seminars, (e.g. Sunshine Law, Public Records Act, State and local ethics law). Self Analysis . 1 believe that I met this goal. By the end of August 2009, ou.r attorneys will have made 18 presemations! workshops / seminars 10 County staff and advisory board members. I. September 3,2008 presentation to the zoning staffrclating to conditions of approval: 2. September 15.2008 presentation to the environmental staffrelatillg to conditions of approval; .... September 15, 2008 presentation to all advisol)' board members relating to Sunshine Law, ~). Ethics, and Public Records Act; 4. September 22. 2008-presentation to transportation staff relating to conditions of approval; 5. October 27, 2008 presentation to zoning staff relating to fee simple ownership and deeds; 6. November J. 2008 presentation to zoning staff relating to advertising titles; 7. January 12, 2009 presentation to zoning staff relating to SIC codes; 8. January 15, 2009 presentation to Leadership Collier relating to Ethics and SUrlshine Law; 9. January 20, 2009 presentation to the Clam Bay Advisory Committee relating to Sunshine Law and Public Records Act; 10. February 9, 2009 presentation to z.aning stalf relating to adverse possession, easements by necessity and searching the Clerk's records; II. February 19, 2009 presentation to the Clam Bay Advisory Committee relating to Ethics; 12, l'vl,m:h 18, 2009 presentation to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board relating to Ethics; - 13. March 26, 2009 presentation to the Pollution Control staff relating to Sunshine Law, Ethics, and Public Records Act; 14. April 13, 2009 presentation to tbe Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Committee relating to Sunshine Law and Public Records Act: ] 5. April 20, 2009 presentation f(,)r New Hire Orientation relating to Ethics. This presentation was videotaped to be presented at future New Hire Orientations; 16. April 20, 2009 presentation to the zoning staff relating to basic real estate and legal descriptions; and 17. June 8. 2009 presentation to the Conservation Collier Land .Acquisition Committee relating to Ethics. 18. August 20, 2009, presentation to Health and Human Services on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HlPAA) Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Ratina :2 - Page 9 of 12 Agenda Item No. 12A September 29,2009 Page 24 of 40 I I 7. Litigation. Commencing in September 2008, wewill prepare and distribute concise quarterly reports for the Board with respect to current litigation, including potential or anticipated legal issues that may come before the Board of County Commissioners. Self Analysis 1 view this as a paltial success. We literally started from scratch on this report, which I continue to modi fy in an attempt to meet the stated objectives. I have provided the Board with litigation update reports 011 November 5, 2008; March 31. 2009 and July l. 2009. The nexl reporl will be provided on Oclober 1. 21)09. g;;J. Ik- ~. ~ ~ As you \\'iJl have noted from those reports, this OfTice manages a substantial amount f h'YfI~ litigation. As of the July I. .2009, report there was a total of 282 cases. The chaIt below . -" I shows how those cases are divided lip by category. ~ . ---.-.. --- Litigation Maters as of July 1, 2009 9 17 36 160 .-. ---- l" CompleX .. La<xl Us. 0 P...onal ~ o Code enforcement . Contracts I!!S Eminent Domain _ ~.foreclsoure$ _~.~~!ms (no suitfil.~~L~ Bankruptcy __ _. As an aside. this Office is making an effort to hire outside counsel tinns that are located within Collier County. Although there are several outstanding firms that we can not utilize due to contliet issues. I believe that there are many talented attorneys wlthin the County that Page 10 of 12 - -..- Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 . Page 25 of 40 we C<lll use, and with the exception of certain technical expertise that is locally unavailable, my goal over time is to utilize local counsel exclusively. COlTlmissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Ratina ~. :; - 8. Opinions File. For purposes of creating consistency in the legal opinions issued by this Office, and to eliminate duplication of work efforts, we will create an indexed, electronic County Attorney Legal Opinions Database, which will include past opinions of this Office ,-., and all future opinions. This will serve both as a resource tool when researching issues of law, as well as provide consistency of approach to our clients, saving time, manpower, and client frustration. Self Analysis I have been slIccessful in creating and utilizing an Opinions database. To date, we have scanned 949 opinions. the oldest from 1982. Of these opinions 318 relate to ethics, 64 relate to public records, 70 relate to sunshine law and 5 relate to records retention. 1bc other topics covered by the opinions are general administrative, advisory boards, Airport Authority, Board of County Commissioners, Budget, Community Development and Environmental Services, Conservation Collier, County Manager, Elections, Emergency Services, Public Services, Public Utilities, Real Property, Tourism, Transportation, and other. 1 have established as Oflice Policy a requirement that when any legal opinion is requested, the attorney is to first check the Opinions Database to see if the issue has been addressed previously. If it has, it is simply a maller of making sure the law is still valid and providing the prior opinion and any clarification to the requestor. This fosters the goals of obtaining consistency of approach to our clients, and saves time and labor. To reduce client frustration and misunderstandings, all opinions are required to be in writing. Requiring written opinions also acts as an incentive to carell1lly check the Opinions Database. -, Page 11 of 12 ~~_._._- .- _n_n_ ,..- Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 Page 26 of 40 . . . , I Lastly, prior to a controversial or subst:illtative opinion being issued, it must be reviewed by either the County Attorney or Deputy County Attorney to assure that an aspects of the issue have been contemplated and fully researched. Comnlissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Rating A S J~r r r <J- ~"'d~' - r~ fi~ Page 12 of 12 i I -_.-- Agenda Item No. 12A .. ., September 29, 2009 Page 27 of 40 Evaluation completed by Commissioner Frank Halas FY 2008 / 2009 Action Plan - Self Evaluation Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney The County Attorney is charged with the responsibility of planning, directing and reviewing the activities and operations of the Office of the County Attorney. The County Attorney is the legal advisor and counsel for the Board of County Commissioners, its advisory boards and advisory committees. The County Attorney also provides legal counsel to and assists the County Manager and his agencies in order to facilitate the goals and objectives established for the County Manager by the Board of County Commissioners. - The County Attorney, through the assistant county attorneys and supporting staff, represent the County in wide-ranging complex litigation relating to implementation of government policies and capital projects, eminent domain, personal injury, property damage, workplace/personnel matters, finance and land use. In addition to litigation, he is counsel to the County's divisions and departments for their daily operations. In this regard, the County Attorney is responsible for the review of all policy documents (resolutions), legislation (ordinances and special acts), and the drafting, legal review and revision of all contracts, real property conveyance documents and other Board signatory documents. ...." The County Attorney's Employment Agreement with the Board of County Commissioners provides for an annual evaluation of the County Attorney's performance. By custom, this performance has been measured against performance objectives set forth in that year's annual Action Plan, by rating each of the performance objectives on a I to 3 scale, with I being Below Standards; 2 being Meets Standards; and 3 being Exceeds Standards. Individual evaluations are then totaled and averaged to determine the Board's collective position. The following Action Plan illustrates and reviews Board expectations for the County Attorney from the date of my taking this Office, April 23, 2008, through September 2009. The Action Plan is based on the broad areas generally expected to be performed by the Managing Partner of a significant law finn, including: legal advice; leadership and organizational direction; communications; fiscal management; and personnel management. -- Page 1 of 12 ---.... Agenda Item No. 12A . September 29, 2009 . Page 28 of 40 Goals for Fiscal Year 2008-09: I have and will continue to initiate changes to create a more efficient work environment. This will include hiring and retaining the best employees, focusing on how to conduct business with better customer service results and making internal changes that result in a more efficient and, effective work product. The County Attorney Office has already been restructured to assure that Requests for Legal Services are completed promptly, and that there will be overlapping areas of expertise within the Office. This effort will require further improvements in our planning, assignment of responsibilities, and establishment of accountability to assure continued enhancement within the agency. Specific areas that I propose as part of next year's action plan are: 1. Oral Presentations at Meetings. I will work to assure that both the County Attorney's and the County Attorney Office's presentations at Board of County Commissioners' meetings, advisory board meetings, and workshops are clear, concise and effective. All presenters will be charged with making presentations that avoid legalese and focus on the legal issue in a simple, understandable and brief manner. Self Analysis: This Office has adopted the County Manager's "three B's" advice to his staff with respect to Board presentations; that you Be Brief, Be Brilliant, and Be Gone. An ongoing discussion at this Office is peer evaluation of our responses and presentations at Board meetings to help identify when we have not been as concise, clear and responsive as we would wish. I have seen improvement in this area. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Ratina ",S Page 2 of 12 ...-- --- Agenda Item No. 12A September 29,2009 Page 29 of 40 Commissioner Comments CA Eval- 08-09 1) Oral Presentations: I too have seen improvement. The office seems to have gotten the "B~ Brief and Be Gone" parts. Presenters are better prepared and hedge less. Sometunes, however, the "Be Brilliant" is not there; Fir~, my impression is that clarity, responsiveness, and depth are being sacrificed in the mterest of speed. Answers are often pat, brief: and simplistic beyond what is needed for us to reach an appropriate decision. Often the governing law or applicable case law is not stated or laid out in a concise manner. In areas where we are offered latitude for making a decision, the parameters and source of the latitude are not given. This leaves me less than confident in making a decision. For example, in regard to the recent issue regarding waiving for payment of utilities for a particular -. householder, we were told, "It's up to you". You may have known what you meant by the statement but no one else did. We were aware that State law and our ordinances say that water use must be charged to the meter holder. We were not told where we get or have given ourselves permission to waive the charges nor were the circumstances under which we may do so outlined. Your response made it sound that we simply could choose not to follow the law whenever we wished. This approach opens the door to numerous future requests and makes subsequent utility decisions appear to be completely arbitrary. This creates bad policy and complicates enforcement. We need to be able to distinguish between decisions where we are setting precedent and where we are operating under existing po licy and practice. There have been times when you have spoken up and clearly said, "You can't do that." I have appreciated those times. Overa1I, however, you need to become more proactive and either much more concisely deep or else a little less "brief'. Second, you have demonstrated a marked aversion to conflict which I believe gets in the way of properly representing both your staff's positions and the county's interest. You often appear to be anxious to deliver only the answers the commission (or sometimes any particular commissioner) wishes to hear. Similarly, you appear to be focused on disposing of matters quickly and without further legal conflict regardless of the long-term consequences to the county. This may be a carryover from the previous administration ofthe CA Office, but it remains unacceptable to me. Candidly, I believe - and have heard it said - that we (the county) are seen as an easy target that will not defend itself unless forced. Wave a lawsuit and we will fold- particularly on land use issues. At this point, I cannot distinguish between times when you merely and personally don not want to spend the energy to engage and when it is not genuinely in the county's interest to pursue a matter. - J J .;",. :-_/.L7:~~'____-_. ~-"_..--:-r;:.:...-- - J ---- -~--.-- Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 . Page 30 of 40 2. Written Legal Advice. Both the County Attorney and the County Attorney Office will provide professional, objective, unbiased legal advice to the Board of County Commissioners, its advisory boards and committees, the County Manager and his agencies and employees as necessary for formulation and implementation of legislative policies and projects. Responses will avoid legalese and focus on the legal issue in a simple, understandable and brief manner. Self Analysis All attorneys have been directed to keep their writing, as much as legally possible, clear, concise, and to the point. I have seen improvement in this area. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 3. Processing Reauests for Legal Services. Utilizing our electronic records system, we determined that for the period April through June 2007, the average turnaround for an RLS (Request for Legal Services) was 11 days, with 3% of all RLS's being processed in 48 hours or less. Smaller samples taken from prior years showed that an II-day turnaround has been a longstanding practice with the Office. I find this unacceptable. On a going forward basis, this Office will achieve an ongoing 48-hour (or less) turnaround time on 75% of all future Requests for Legal Services received from the Board of County Commissioners and County Manager agencies. A report will be run from Client Profiles (this Office's data management system) to determine turnaround time. This will include preparation and review of documents for legal sufficiency prior to consideration by the Board of County Page 3 of 12 .--. Agenda Item No. 12A . September 29, 2009 Page 31 of 40 Commissioners for Board action, including, but not limited to, agreements, contracts, deeds, leases, bonds, ordinances, resolutions, and other legal documents requested by County Commissioners, the County Manager, or the staff. Self Analysis It required a challenging few months to change this Office's culture on processing work. The graphs below show the general increase in response time. Completed RLSa 120% 100% 8O'lll 8O'lll 40'1(, 20'1(, -- 0'1(, I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I .j' f ~. ! I" ," J" J" I I f 1 I f .j; ~ ~ Ii. 1__ Percent of RLSs completed within 46 hours 1 The above graph shows the percentage of Requests for Legal Services that were completed within 48 hours. May and June 2008 were 50% and 49% respectively. Since August 2008, the percentage has stayed above 80%. The next graph shows the actual number of Requests for Legal Services received and closed each month between May 2008 and July 2009. March and April 2009 show more closed than received due to a carryover of Requests from prior months being closed. -~" Page 4 of 12 -. --....---- Agenda Item No. 12A , September 29,2009 Page 32 of 40 RLSs Received and Closed May, 2008 through May, 2009 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~q, n,,# 'lJ rA' ,#' ~' ,J-' -s/' /' -s/' -s/. ~. ~' 0:-' ~' ~' ':j~~' ').;f.' ~":l ').:s ~C$'; rf"/~.;j ~., ~ ~ c:P ~o~ ')'Ii <<0 I-RLSs Received ORLSs Closed I As always, a number of legal assignments, due to their complex nature, take weeks and even months to complete. I believe that the Office has fully achieved my goals in this area, the results of which I believe are demonstrated in the next Goal and Objective, which is Client Satisfaction/Peer Review. I intend to maintain this standard. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 Page 5 of 12 Agenda Item No. 12A . September 29, 2009 Page 33 of 40 4. Client Satisfaction! Peer Review. During my first month as County Attorney, performance evaluation reports were sent to the various Division Administrators and Managers to assess performance of each attorney in the Office. As a result of negative comments, a number of Assistant County Attorneys had their duties reassigned. Client satisfaction will be a major goal of this Office. We will strive for a 75% rating level for clients who feel services exceeded expectations or were exceptional. The results for this satisfaction rating will be calculated by a questionnaire sent to Division Administrators and Department Directors prior to the evaluation coming back before the Board of County Commissioners. Attorneys who consistently deliver outstanding performance will be rewarded, and those Attorneys who can not achieve satisfactory reviews by their clients despite multiple reassignments will eventually leave the Office. Client reviews will factor into each of the Assistant County Attorney's performance evaluations. In short, the County Attorney will ensure that Assistant County Attorneys and support staff are motivated to work to their full potential, that excellent performance will be recognized and rewarded, and that poor performance will not be tolerated. Self Analysis An Attorney-Client Feedback form was provided to the County Manager, Division Administrators, and select Department Directors to solicit their opinions regarding the services they receive from the County Attorney Office. These results are utilized to shift workloads if departments are not satisfied with our services; they are also utilized in the attorney's individual annual performance evaluations. Below is a chart showing a comparison of 2008 and 2009 overall client feedback. Comparison of 2008 and 2009 Attorney - Client Feedback Overall Results 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 1% 0% N1A Does Not Meet Meets Exceeds I_ 2008 .2009 I Page 6 of 12 Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 Page 34 of 40 Below is a chart showing the 2009 Attorney - Client Feedback Results and the individual categories the divisions / departments were requested to rate. 2009 Attorney - Client Feedback Results 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ,- Exceeds II Meets 0 Does Not Meet 0 N1A I 1 - The attome This office has made substantial improvement in overall client satisfaction. I intend to continue working to improve this area. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 Page 7 of 12 ~----- Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 Page 35 of 40 5. Fiscal Management. I will continue to develop and effectively administer an annual budget for the Office of the County Attorney in conformance with policies adopted by the Board of County Commissioners, while at the same time improving the quality of this Office. The 2009 budget that I presented to the Board came in at 4.1% less than the prior year's; which exceeded Board direction of2%. Self Analysis During the Fiscal Year prior to my becoming County Attorney (2008), this Office's budget for Personal Services was $3,173,600, with 13 Attorneys and 18 Support Staff. Next year's proposed budget for Personal Services seeks $2,575,300, with 10 Attorneys and 15 Support Staff. This represents an almost 19% reduction in personnel costs, and was accomplished with no loss in service through voluntary attrition and by closing our offices at CDES to consolidate this Office's operations. The proposed budget contains permanent cuts of 8 positions, with 1 budgeted but unfilled Attorney position. This position will likely need to be filled when normal activity resumes in permitting and land use. It is my intent to continue to permanently reduce this Office's Support Staff through normal attrition until I reach a ratio of approximately 1 Support Staff person per Attorney, which my research has found is typical throughout County Attorney Offices in this State. Utilizing a portion of our savings in Personnel Costs, I increased outside counsel expenses in this year's budget from $100,000 to $200,000 in anticipation of defending several actions most notably the Hussey matter, a Bert Harris claim in excess of $90,000,000. Any unused funds budgeted for outside counsel will be returned to the Board. I did not request any funds for Capital Outlay. With staff reductions, we have surplus computers and printers which will be utilized to replace equipment when needed. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 .-- Page 8 of 12 - ,..--- ~_._-- Agenda Item No. 12A . September 29, 2009 Page 36 of 40 6. Public Records and Sunshine Law. This Office will educate and update County staff, and advisory board members through periodic workshops/seminars, (e.g. Sunshine Law, Public Records Act, State and local ethics law). Self Analysis I believe that I met this goal. By the end of August 2009, our attorneys will have made 18 presentations / workshops / seminars to County staff and advisory board members. 1. September 3, 2008 presentation to the zoning staff relating to conditions of approval; 2. September 15, 2008 presentation to the environmental staff relating to conditions of approval; 3. September 15, 2008 presentation to all advisory board members relating to Sunshine Law, Ethics, and Public Records Act; 4. September 22, 2008 presentatiP~ to transportation staff relating to conditions of approval; 5. October 27, 2008 presentation to zoning staff relating to fee simple ownership and deeds; 6. November 3, 2008 presentation to zoning staff relating to advertising titles; 7. January l2, 2009 presentation to zoning staff relating to SIC codes; 8. January 15, 2009 presentation to Leadership Collier relating to Ethics and Sunshine Law; 9. January 20, 2009 presentation to the Clam Bay Advisory Committee relating to Sunshine Law and Public Records Act; lO. February 9, 2009 presentation to zoning staff relating to adverse possession, easements by necessity and searching the Clerk's records; ll. February 19,2009 presentation to the Clam Bay Advisory Committee relating to Ethics; l2. March 18,2009 presentation to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board relating to Ethics; 13. March 26, 2009 presentation to the Pollution Control staff relating to Sunshine Law, Ethics, and Public Records Act; l4. April 13, 2009 presentation to the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Committee relating to Sunshine Law and Public Records Act; 15. April 20, 2009 presentation for New Hire Orientation relating to Ethics. This presentation was videotaped to be presented at future New Hire Orientations; 16. April 20, 2009 presentation to the zoning staff relating to basic real estate and legal descriptions; and 17. June 8, 2009 presentation to the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Committee relating to Ethics. 18. August 20, 2009, presentation to Health and Human Services on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIP AA) Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 ,,,,tr Page 9 of 12 ------.--- I Agenda Item No. 12A ( . September 29, 2009 Page 37 of 40 7. Litigation. Commencing in September 2008, we will prepare and distribute concise quarterly reports for the Board with respect to current litigation, including potential or anticipated legal issues that may come before the Board of County Commissioners. Self Analysis I view this as a partial success. We literally started from scratch on this report, which I continue to modify in an attempt to meet the stated objectives. I have provided the Board with litigation update reports on November 5,2008; March 31,2009 and July 1, 2009. The next report will be provided on October 1,2009. As you will have noted from those reports, this Office manages a substantial amount of litigation. As of the July 1, 2009, report there was a total of 282 cases. The chart below shows how those cases are divided up by category. Litigation Maters as of July 1, 2009 9 17 ,,- 160 . Complex . Land Use o Personal Injury o Code enforcement . Contracts . Eminent Domain II Foreclsoures o Claims (no suit filed) . Bankruptcy As an aside, this Office is making an effort to hire outside counsel firms that are located within Collier County. Although there are several outstanding firms that we can not utilize due to conflict issues, I believe that there are many talented attorneys within the County that - Page 10 of 12 ..--- .__. ---- . Agenda Item No. 12A September 29, 2009 Page 38 of 40 7) Client Satisfaction: I am happy to see measurement of performance and to see dep~n~ performance reported so clearly. Division services as reported clearly are unprovmg. You are to be commended for this. The comments that follow have to do with my evaluation of your services to the Board of County Commissioners as the "client". Here are some issues seen, as from the dais, where I have been disappointed by our representation. . As your primary client, the commission is entitled to know from you applicable laws for tough decisions we make. Sometimes your comments seem based on instinct and/or personal thoughts or preferences rather than specific law. At times, your renderings seem to come from your reading of the commission's desires rather than an external objective marker, such as applicable statute, ordinance, or case law. At others, they seemed designed to deflect any further legal action. Some examples: In Evaluago!l Section I, I already discussed public utility bill payments. It is one such case in point. The Jaw says ratepayers receiving services are accountable for the bill Our ordinance lays out policies. I see no wiggle room. Your comment was "it's up to you" whether to enforce. Is this our law or Jeff's law? I do not want to ask myself that question whenever you give me an answer. If something applies beyond the ordinance that allows more options, tell us - and tell us what it is. Another example arose when you were asked if the Clerk can charge a fixed amount for checks or whether the statute that covers the charges for services between the Clerk: and various Courts applies to us, you shrugged. This is not a new issue. The dispute is several years old. I cannot fathom that no research had been done or that you were not prepared to answer this critical question. Probably no single issue this year had the potential for a more profound effect on our budget. In addition, I have ongoing concerns that you try influence your staff on issues relative to the Clerk to move in a manner that is opposite the official position and direction of the Board. I feel they have almost been encouraged to accept defeat before becoming engaged. I do not feel confident that you are giving this issue YOUR best. I remain uncomfortable about facts I am presented on land use issues coming before the Board of County Commissioners, particularly in cases where it is known that the developers are litigious. In these cases and in zoning issue decisions, we make decisions in an atmosphere where I cannot distinguish between your personal opinions and case law. Tell us the case law and then give us your best advice. Overall, I sense that your need or wish to avoid conflict or confrontation causes you to brush aside important issues. You frequently generate general pessimism about achieving board-desired outcomes and often your visible impatience coupled with that pessimism truncates further exploration or pursuit of a board end. Your job is to fmd a way for us to accomplish our ends or to tell us clearly and concisely why they cannot be achieved. Ifit has to be in the shade, fine. We have time. "We'll probably lose" is insufficient in itself and does us all a disservice. _.-'1 ._, /. ,~ ----- "./ ,. . /___v ._ --l~ - ,r /'." ,.., -- -~. ~-~ -<P -- I . ... _~ _~-'"'\.. ______ . _._- I Agenda Item No. 12A . September 29, 2009 Page 39 of 40 we can use, and with the exception of certain technical expertise that is locally unavailable, my goal over time is to utilize local counsel exclusively. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 8. Opinions File. For purposes of creating consistency in the legal opinions issued by this Office, and to eliminate duplication of work efforts, we will create an indexed, electronic --, County Attorney Legal Opinions Database, which will include past opinions of this Office and all future opinions. This will serve both as a resource tool when researching issues of law, as well as provide consistency of approach to our clients, saving time, manpower, and client frustration. Self Analysis I have been successful in creating and utilizing an Opinions database. To date, we have scanned 949 opinions - the oldest from 1982. Of these opinions 318 relate to ethics, 64 relate to public records, 70 relate to sunshine law and 5 relate to records retention. The other topics covered by the opinions are general administrative, advisory boards, Airport Authority, Board of County Commissioners, Budget, Community Development and environmental Services, Conservation Collier, County Manager, Elections, Emergency Services, Public Services, Public Utilities, Real Property, Tourism, Transportation, and other. I have established as Office Policy a requirement that when any legal opinion is requested, the attorney is to first check the Opinions Database to see if the issue has been addressed previously. If it has, it is simply a matter of making sure the law is still valid and providing the prior opinion and any clarification to the requestor. This fosters the goals of obtaining consistency of approach to our clients, and saves time and labor. To reduce client frustration and misunderstandings, all opinions are required to be in writing. Requiring written opinions also acts as an incentive to carefully check the Opinions Database. - Page 11 of 12 I .~- Agenda Item No. 12A , ' . September 29, 2009 Page 40 of 40 Lastly, prior to a controversial or substantative opinion being issued, it must be reviewed by either the County Attorney or Deputy County Attorney to assure that all aspects of the issue have been contemplated and fully researched. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 - Page 12 of 12 --,~-- .---.-- I L0COPY ~.\!A OFFICE OF THE COUNTY ATTORNEY 'l (zqIOj INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM TO: Commissioner Donna Fiala, Chairman, District 1 Commissioner Fred W. Coyle, Vice-Chairman, District 4 . Commissioner Frank Halas, District 2 Commissioner Tom Henning, District 3 FROM: Commission~ Jam~ N. Col~ Di~-t-. Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney DATE: September 25,2009 RE: AdditionalBackup Material for Item 12A - County Attorney FY2008 - 2009 Action Plan I Evaluation - on the September 29, 2009 Board of County Commissioners' Agenda Attached for your review and information are two evaluations which were received after the Board's agenda was printed. These complete the package to include all five evaluations from the Board members. Also attached isa summary sheet detailing the average scores from each commissioner and the total overall average. cc: Jim Mudd, County Manager Leo Ochs, Deputy County Manager Clerk to the Boai'd COA60/44 , , Evaluation completed by Commissioner Jim Coletta FY 2008 I 2009 Action Plan - Self Evaluation Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney, " The County Attorney is charged with the responsibility of planning, directing and reviewing the activities and operations of the Office of the County Attorney. The County Attorney is the legal advisor and counsel for the Board of County Commissioners, its advisory boards and advisory committees. The County Attorney also provides legal counsel to and assists the County Manager and his agencies in order to facilitate the goals and objectives established for the County Manager by the Board of County Commissioners. \ The County Attorney, through the assistant county attorneys and supporting staff, represent the County in wide-ranging complex litigation relating to implementation of government policies and capital projects, eminent domain, persO\1al injury, property damage, workplace/personnel matters, finance and land use. In addition to litigation, he is counsel to the County's divisions and departments for their daily operations. In this regard, the County Attorney is responsible for the review of all policy documents (resolutions), legislation (ordinances and special acts), and the drafting, legal review and revision of all contracts, real property conveyance documents and other Board signatory documents. The County Attorney's Employment Agreement with the Board of County Commissioners provides for an annual evaluation of the County Attorney's performance. By custom, this performance has been measured against performance objectives set forth in that year's annual Action Plan, by rating each of the performance objectives on a 1 to 3 scale, with 1 being Below Standards; 2 being Meets Standards; and 3 being Exceeds Standards. Individual evaluations are then totaled and averaged to determine the Board's collective position. The following Action Plan illustrates and reviews Board expectations for the County Attorney from the date of my taking this Office, April 23, 2008, through September 2009. The Action Plan is based on the broad areas generally expected to be performed by the Managing Partner of a significant law firm, including: legal advice; leadership and organizational direction; communications; fiscal management; and personnel management. Page 1 of 12 , , . Goals for Fiscal Year 2008-09: I have and will continue.to initiate changes to create a more efficient work environment. This will include hiring and retaining the best employees, focusing on. how to conduct business with better customer service results and making internal changes that result ina more efficient and effective work product. The County Attorney Office has already been restructured to assure that . Requests for Legal Services are completed promptly, and that there will be overlapping areas of expertise within the Office. This effort will require further improvements in our planning, assignment of responsibilities, and establishment of accountability to assure continued enhancement within the agency. Specific areas that I propose as part of next year's action plan are: 1. Oral Presentations at Meetin~s. I will work to assure that both the County Attorney's and the County Attorney Office's presentations at Board of County Commissioners' meetings, advisory board meetings, and workshops are clear, concise and. effective. All presenters will be charged with making presentations that avoid legalese and focus on the legal issue ina simple, understandable and brief manner. Self Analysis: This Office has adopted the County Manager's "three B's" advice to his staff with respect to Board presentations; that you Be Brief, Be Brilliant, and Be Gone. An ongoing discussion at this Office is peer evaluation of our responses and presentations at Board meetings to help identify when we have not been as concise, clear and responsive as we would wish. I have seen improvement.in this area. Commissioner Comments: Mr. Klatzkow, I have found your abilities to communicate to both the public and,the Board of Commissioners to be one of your strongest points. Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Ratina 3 Page 2 ofl2 . \ 2. Written Legal Advice. Both the County Attorney and the County Attorney Office will provide professional, objective, unbiased legal advice to the Board of County Commissioners, its advisory boards and committees, the County Manager and his agencies and employees as necessary for formulation and implementation Of legislative policies and projects. Responses will avoid legalese and focus. on the legal issue in a simple, understandable and brief manner. Self Analysis All attorneys have< been directed to keep their writing, as much. as legally possible, clear, < concise, and to the point. I have seen improvement in this area. Commissioner, Comments: Written legal advice from you and your office has been both concise and no overwhelming with legalese. Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Rating 3 3. Processing Requests for Legal Services. Utilizing our electronic records system, we determined that for the period April through June 2007, the average turnaround for an RLS (Request for Legal Services) was 11 days, with 3 % of all RLS' sbeing processed in 48 hours or less. Smaller samples taken from prior years showed that an II-day turnaround has been a < longstanding practice with the Office. I find this unacceptable. On a <. going forward basis, this Office will achieve an ongoing 48-hour (or less) turnaround time on 75% of all future Requests for Legal Services received from the Board of County Commissioners and County Manager agencies. A report will be run from Client Profiles (this Office's data management system) to determine turnaround time. This will include preparation and review of documents for legal sufficiency prior to.< consideration by the Board of County Commissioners for Board action, including, but not limited to, agreements, contracts, deeds, leases, bonds, ordinances, resolutions, and other legal docuU1ents requested by County Commissioners, the County Manager, or the staff. Self Analysis It required a challenging few months to change this Office's culture on processing work. The graphs below show the general increase in response time. Page 3 of 12 , . Completed RLSs 120% 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% I I I &' I I I I I I I g I I I rv rv ~' l ~' ~' l ;.' I' l c-.' l 'f/ I' ~. i' ~ $ ~ g> I If j $ ~ ~ '5 ~ " .l!J ",'9 I ~ I ':l 1-- Percent of RLSs completed within 48 hours I The above graph shows the percentage of Requests for Legal Services that were completed within4Shours. May and June 200S were 50% and 49% respectively. Since August 200S, the percentage has stayed above SO%. The next graph shows the actual number of RequestS' for LegaFServices receiveqand closed each month between May 2008 and July 2009. March and April 2009 sh()w more closed than received due to a carryover of Requests from prior months being closed. Page 40f 12 . RLSs Received and Closed May, 2008 through May, .2009 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ .~ ~ ~. ~ ~, 0' ~~, ~' {l,\' ~' 0\' {l,\' fA' fA' 0:-' ~, ~, (l,' ~~' ~~ ~~~ ":,,, ",c." ~ "CfJ ~ ~ ~'I> &~'Ii ~~ . ~ ~~ ":,~<:;' ":,,, 'i" 1iI,,1?j oCJ o",1?j 0~ ":,~<:;' <<;j) <::;I?j ~ Q III RLSs Received CJ RLSs Closed I As always, a number oflegal assignments, due to theircomplex nature, take weeks and even months to complete. I believe that the Office has fully achieved my goals in this area, the results of which I believe are demonstrated in the next Goal and Objective, which is Client Satisfaction/Peer Review. I intend to maintain this standard. Commissioner Comments: Measurable goals should be the hallmark for. county departments. Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Rating 3 Page 5 of 12 ---~-~-- . . 4. Client Satisfaction! Peer Review. During my first month as County Attorney, performance evaluation reports were sent to the various Division Administrators and Managers to assess performance of each attorney in the Office. As a result of negative comments, a number of Assistant County Attorneys had their . duties reassigned. Client satisfaction will be a major goal of this Office. We will strive for a 75% rating level for clients who feel services exceeded expectations or were exceptional. The results for this satisfaction rating will be calculated by a questionnaire sent to Division Administrators and Department Directors prior to the evaluation coming back before the Board of County Commissioners. Attorneys. who consistently deliver outstanding performance will be rewarded, and those Attorneys who can not achieve satisfactory reviews by their clients despite multiple reassigrunents. will eventually leave the Office. Client reviews will factor into each of the Assistant. County Attorney's performance evaluations. In short, the County Attorney will ensure that Assistant County Attorneys and support staff are motivated to work to their full potential, that excellent performance will be recognized and rewarded, and that poor performance will not be tolerated. 'Self Analysis An Attorney-Client Feedback form was provided to the County Manager, Division Administrators, and select Department Directors to solicit their opinions regarding the services they receive from the County Attorney Office. These results are utilized to shift workloads if departments are not satisfied with our services; they are also utilized in the attorney's individual annual performance evaluations. Below isa chart showing a comparison of2008and 2009 overall client feedback. Comparison of 2008 and 2009 Attorney -Client Feedback Overall Results 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% N/A Does Not Meet Meets Exceeds I_ 2008 11III 2009 I Page 6 of 12 . Below is a chart showing the 2009 Attorney - Client Feedback Results and the individual categories the divisions I departments were requested to rate. 2009 Attorney - Client Feedback Results 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 III Exceeds 0 Meets 0 Does Not Meet 0 NJA I 1 - The attorne This office has made substantial improvement in overall client satisfaction. I intend to continue working to improve this area. Commissioner Comments: lfind this comparison of service rating within those served to be unique and it helps to establish a true value of the County Attorney's office. Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Rating 3 Page 7 of 12 ; . 5. Fiscal Management. I will continue. to develop and effectively administer an annual budget for the Office of the County Attorney in. conformance with policies adopted by the Board of County Commissioners, while at the same time improving the quality of this Office. The 2009 budget that I presented to the Board came in at 4.1 % less than the prior year's; which exceeded Board direction of 2%. Self Analysis During the Fiscal Year prior to my becoming County Attorney (2008), this Office's budget for Personal Services was $3,173,600, with 13 Attorneys and 18 Support Staff. Next year's proposed budget for Personal Services seeks $2,575,300, with 10 Attorneys and 15 Support Staff. Thisrepresents an almost 19% reduction in personnel costs, and was accomplished with no loss in service through voluntary attrition and by closing our offices at CDES to consolidate this Office's operations. The proposed budget contains permanent cuts of 8 positions, with 1 budgeted but unfilled Attorney position. This position will likely need to be filled when normal activity resumes in permitting and land use. It is my intent to continue to permanently reduce this Office's Support Staff through normal attrition until I reach a ratio of approximately 1 Support Staff person per Attomey, which my research has. found is typical throughout County Attorney Offices in this State. Utilizing a portion of our savings in Personnel Costs, I increased outside counsel expenses in this year's budget from $100,000 to $200,000 in anticipation of defending several actions most notably the Hussey matter, a Bert Harris claim in excess of $90,000,000. Any unused funds budgeted for outside counsel will be returned to the Board. I did not request any funds for Capital Outlay. . With staff reductions, · we have surplus computers and printers which will be utilized to replace equipment when needed. Commissioner Comments: Thank you for keeping the cost of doing government down in these troubled times. Please continue to prove your services ata lower cost. Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Rating 3 P~ge 8 of12 ~ . , 6. Pubic Recerds and Sunshine Law. This Office will educate and update Ceunty staff, and advisary baard members threugh periadic warkshaps/seminars, (e.g. Sunshine Law, Public Recards Act, State and lacal ethics law). . Self Analysis I believe that I met this gaal. By the end af August 2009, aur attarneys will have made 18 presentatiens / warkshaps / seminars to. Caunty staff and advisary baard members, 1. September 3, 2008 presentatian to. the zaning staffrelating tacenditians af appraval; 2. September 15, 2008 presentatian to. the enviranmental staffrelating to. cenditians af approval; 3. September 15, 2008 presentatian to. all advisary baard members relating to. Sunshine Law, Ethics, and Public Recerds Act; 4. September 22, 2008 presentatian to. transpartatian staff relating to. cenditiens af approval; 5. Octaber 27, 2008 presentatien to. zaning staff relating to. fee simple awnership and deeds; 6. Navember 3,2008 presentatian to. zaning staff relating to. advertising titles; 7. January 12, 2009 presentatian to. zaning staff relating to. SIC cades; 8. January 15, 2009 presentatien to. Leadership Callier relating to. Ethics and Sunshine Law; 9. January 20, 2009 presentatian to. the Clam Bay Advisary Cammittee relating to. Sunshine Law and Public Recards Act; 10. February 9, 2009 presentatian to. zaning staff relating to. adverse passessian, easements by necessity and searching the Clerk's recards; 11. February 19, 2009 presentatian to. the Clam Bay Advisary Cammittee relating to. Ethics; 12. March 18, 2009 presentatian to. the Parks and Recreatian Advisery Beard relating to. Ethics; 13. March 26, 2009presentatien to. the Pallutien Centrel staff relating to. Sunshine Law, Ethics, and Public Recards Act; 14. April 13, 2009 presentatien to. the Censervatien Cellier Land Acquisitien Cemmittee relating to. Sunshine Law and Public Records Act; 15. April. 20, 2009 presentatian far New Hire Orientatien relating to. Ethics. This presentatien was videataped to. be presented at future New Hire Orientatians; 16. April 20, 2009 presentatien to. the zaning staff relating to. basic real estate and legal descriptiens; and 17. June 8, 2009 presentatien to. the Censervatien Callier Land Acquisitien Cammittee relating to. Ethics. 18. August 20, 2009, presentatien to. Health and Human Services en the Health Insurance Pertability and Acceuntability Act (HIPAA) 19. Commissioner Comments: One of the county attorney's duty has been to educate the BCC, other elected officials, board members and the general public on sunshine Jaws, legal liabilities and general law in a matter that is both complete and understandable. Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards .. 1 2 3 .1 Rating 3 Page 9 of 12 . . 7. Litigation.. Commencing in September 2008, we will prepare and distribute concise quarterly reports for.the Board with respect to current litigation, including potential or anticipated legal issues that may come before the Board of County Commissioners. Self Analysis I view this as a partial. success. We literally started from scratch on · this report, which. I continue to modify in an attempt to meet the stated objectives. I have provided the Board with litigation update reports on November 5,2008; March 31, 2009 and July 1,2009. The next report will be provided on October 1, 2009. As you will. have noted. from those reports, this. Officernan~ges . a. substantial amount of litigation. As of the July 1, 2009, report there was a total 0{282 cases. Thechartbelow shows how those cases are divided up by category. Litigation Maters as of July 1 , 2009 9 17 36 160 III Complex .. Ll:md Use o Personal Injury o Code enforcement .. Contracts III Eminent Domain .. Foreclsoures (;IlJ Claims (no suit filed) .. Bankruptcy As. an aside, this. .office is making an effort to hire outside counselfinns that are located within Collier County. Although there are several outstanding finns that we can not utilize due to conflict issues, I believe that there are.mahy talented attorneys within the County that Page 10 of 12 ,) , we can use, and with the exception of certain technical expertise that is locally unavailable, my goal over timeisto utilize local counsel exclusively. Commissioner Comments: I will expect that you will continue to maximize your staff and minimize the use of outside counsel. Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Rating 3 8. Opinions File. For purposes of creating consistency in the legal opinions issued by this Office" and to eliminate duplication of work efforts, we will create an indexed, electronic County Attorney Legal Opinions Database, which will include past opinions of this Office and all future opinions. This will serve both as a resource tool when researching issues of law, as well as provide consistency of approach to our clients, saving time, manpower, and client frustration. Self Analysis I have been successful in creating and utilizing an Opinions database. To date, we have scanned 949. opinions - the oldest from 1982. Of these opinions 318 relate to ethics, 64 relate to public records, 70 relate to sunshine law and 5 relate to records retention. The other topics covered by the opinions are general administrative, advisory boards, Airport Authority, Board of County Commissioners, Budget, Community Development and Environmental Services, Conservation Collier, County Manager, Elections, Emergency Services, Public Services, Public Utilities, Real Property, Tourism, Transportation, and other. I have established as Office Policy a requirement that when any legal opinion is requested, the attorney is to first check the Opinions Database to see if the issue has been addressed previously. If it has, it is simply a matter of making sure the law is still valid and providing the prior opinion and any clarification to the requestor. This fosters the goals of obtaining consistency of approach to our clients, and saves time and labor. To reduce client frustration and misunderstandings, all opinions are required to be in writing. Requiring written opinions also acts as an incentive to carefully check the Opinions Database. Lastly, prior to a controversial or substantativeopinion being issued, it must be reviewed by either the County Attorney or Deputy County Attorney to assure that all aspects of theissue have been contemplated and fully researched. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Rating 2.5 Page 11 of 12 .. .. . Page 12 of 12 ,. Evaluation completed by Commissioner Fred Coyle FY 2008 / 2009 Action Plan - Self Evaluation Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney The County Attorney is charged with the responsibility. ofpltMing, directing and revieWl.' ng the activities and operations of the Office of the County Attornei1t, 1 The County Attorney is the legal advisor and counsel for the Board of County Commissioner , its advisory boards and advisory committees. The County Attorney also provides legalcounse to and assists the County Manager and his agencies in order to facilitate the goals and obje~tives established for the County Manager by the Board of County Commissioners. i The County Attorney, through the assistant county attol11eysland supporting staff, represent the County in wide-ranging complex litigation relating toimpl~mentation of government policies and capital projects, eminent domain, personal mjury,propr' damage, workpla<:elpersonnel matters, finance and land use. In addition to litigation, he is counsel to the County's divisions and departments for their daily operations. In this regard, the County Attorney is responsible for the review of all policy documents (resolutions), legislation (ordinances and special acts), and the drafting, legal review and revision of all contracts, real pl1loperty conveyance documents and other Board signatory documents. The County Attorney's Employment Agreement with. the ~Oard of Connty. Commissioners provides for an annual evaluation of the County Altorney'fPerformance.By custom, this performance has been measured against performance objectives set forth in that year's annual Action. Plan, by rat. ing each o. f the performan.ce objectives o';ll to 3 scale, with I being Below Standards; 2 being Meets Standards; and 3 being Exceeds St1dards. Individual evaluations are then totaled and ave:aged to determine the Board's collective Prsition. The following Action Plan illustrates and reviews Board exp~ctations for the . County Attorney from the date of my taking this Office, April 23, 2008, thro ghSeptember2009. The Action Plan is based on the broad areas generally expected to be pertl rmed by the Managing Partner of a significant law firm, including: legal advice; leadersh p and organizational direction; communications; fiscal management; and personnel managem nt. Page 1 of 12 I Goals for Fiscal Year 2008-09: I have and will continue to initiate changes to create a more efficient work environment. This will include hiring and retaining.the best employees,. focusing on how to.conduct business with better customer service results and making internal changes that result ina more efficient and effective work product. The County Attorney Office has already been restructured to assure that Requests for Legal Services are completed promptly, and that there will be overlapping areas of expertise within the Office. This effort will require further improvements in our planning, assignment of responsibilities, and establishment of accountability to assure continued enhancement within the agency. Specific areas that I propose as part of next year's action plan are: 1. Oral Presentations at Meetings. I will work to assure that both the County Attorney's and the County Attorney Office's presentations at Board of County Commissioners' meetings, advisory board meetings, and workshops are clear, concise and effective. All presenters will be charged with making presentations that avoid legalese and focus on the legal issue ina simple, understandable and brief manner. Self Analysis: This. Office has adopted the County Manager's "three B' s" advice to his staff with respect to Board presentations; that you Be Brief, Be Brilliant; and Be Gone. An ongoing discussion at this Office is peer evaluation of our responses and presentations at Board meetings to help identify when we have not been as concise, clear and responsive as. we would wish. Ihave seen improvement in this area. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 Page 2 of12 2. Written Legal Advice. Both the County Attorney and. the County Attorney Office will provide professional, objective, unbiased legal advice to the Board of County Commissioners, its advisory boards and committees, the County Manager and his agencies and employees as necessary for formulation and implementation of legislative policies and projects. Responses will avoid legalese and focus on the legal issue ina simple, understandable and brief manner. Self Analysis All attorneys have been directed to keep their writing, as much as legally possible, clear, concise, and to the point. I have seen improvement in this area. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 L Rating 2..5 3. Processing Requests for Legal Services. Utilizing our electronic records system, we determined that for the period April through June 2007, the average turnaround for an RLS (Request for Legal Services) was 11 days, with 3 % of all RLS' s being processed in 48. hours or less. Smaller samples taken from prior years showed that an ll-day turnaround .has been a longstanding practice with the Office. I find this unacceptable. On a going forward basis, this Office will achieve an ongoing 48-hour (or less) turnaround time on 75% of all future Requests for Legal Services received from the Board of County Commissioners and County Manager agencies. A report will be run. from Client Profiles (this Office's data management system) to determine turnaround time. This will include preparation and review of documents for legal suffic~encyprior to consideration by the Board of County Page 3 of 12 Commissioners for Board action, including, but not limited to, agreements, contracts, deeds, leases, bonds, ordinances, resolutions, and other legal documents requested by County Commissioners, the County Manager, or the staff. Self Analysis It required a challenging few months to change this Office's culture on processing work. The graphs below show the general increase in response time. Completed RLSs 120% 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% g I I g ~ ~ g I & I I & I I I "ii "ii "ii "ii "ii "ii "ii ~. ",' ~ .,.. l .,!' " I' t' t' ft I' .,; ",' -S-' $ s ~ !1 $ s "5 ! ! ~ l j "5 "5 J '" J ~ ;# I.l. 1-- Percent of RLSs completed within 48 hours I The above graph shows the percentage of Requests for Legal Services that were completed within 48 hours. May and June 2008 were 50% and 49% respectively. Since August 2008, the percentage has stayed above 80%. The next graph shows the actual number of Requests for Legal Services received and closed each month between May 2008 and July 2009. March and April 2009 show more closed than received due to a carryover of Requests from prior months being closed. Page 4 of 12 . RLSs Received and Closed May, 2008 through May, 2009 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~' 0' ~' ,}, 0\' 0\' 0\' 0\' r:A' r:A' '1:" ~, ~' 0' ~~' ~ ':j~<-' ,:,':$ ~o.,-S ~ CP ~ ~ ~'If. ~'If ~~v ~ ~'If ':,'~~ ).:s '?' ~...0 o~ ~0 ,,0 )'I>~ <<eP c:>0 ~o <::)0 I- RLSs Received 0 RLSs Closed I As always, a number of legal assignments, due to their complex nature, take weeks and even months to complete. I believe that the Office has fully achieved my goals in this area, the results of which I believe are demonstrated in the next Goal and Objective, which is Client Satisfaction/Peer Review. I intend to maintain this standard. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 Page 5 of 12 , 4. Client Satisfaction! Peer Review. During my first month as County Attorney, performance evaluation reports were sent to the various Division Administrators and Managers to assess performance of each attorney in the Office. As a result of negative comments, a number of Assistant County Attorneys had their duties reassigned. Client satisfaction will be a major goal of this Office. We will strive for a 75% rating level for clients who feel services exceeded expectations or were exceptional. The results for this satisfaction rating will be calculated by a questionnaire sent to Division Administrators and Department Directors prior to the evaluation coming back before the Board of County Commissioners. Attorneys. who consistently deliver outstanding performance will be rewarded, and those Attorneys who can not achieve satisfactory reviews by their clients despite multiple reassignments will eventually leave the Office. Client reviews will factor into each of the Assistant County Attorney's performance evaluations. In short, the County Attorney will ensure that Assistant County Attorneys and support staff are motivated to work to their full potential, that excellent performance will be recognized and rewarded, and that poor performance will not be tolerated. Self Analysis An Attorney-Client Feedback form was provided to the County Manager, Division Administrators, and select Department Directors to solicit their opinions regarding the services they receive from the County Attorney Office. These results are utilized to shift workloads if departments are not satisfied with our services; they are also utilized in the attorney's individual annual performance evaluations. Below is a chart showing a comparison of 2008 and 2009 overall client feedback. Comparison of 2008 and 2009 Attorney - Client Feedback Overall Results I- 2008.11I20091 Page 6 of 12 . Below is a chart showing the 2009 Attorney - Client Feedback Results and the individual categories the divisions / departments were requested to rate. 2009Attorney- Client Feedback Results 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 111I Exceed S 0 Meets 0 Does Not Meet 0 N/A I 1 - The attome This office has made substantial improvement in overall client satisfaction. I intend to continue working to improve this. area. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 ~ Page 7 of 12 5. Fiscal Management. I will continue to develop and effectively administer an annual budget for the Office of the County Attorney in c.onformance with policies adopted by the Board of County Commission.ers, while at the same time improving the quality of this Office. The 2009 budget that I presented to the Board came in at 4.1 % less than the prior year's; which exceeded Board direction of 2%. Self Analysis During the Fiscal Year prior to my.becoming County Attorney (2008), this Office's budget for Personal Services was $3,173,600, with 13 Attorneys and 18 Support Staff. Next year's proposed budget for Personal Services seeks $2,575,300, with 10 Attorneys and 15 Support Staff This represents an almost 19% reduction in personnel costs, and was accomplished with no loss in service through voluntary attrition and by closing our offices at CDES to consolidate this Office's operations. The proposed budget contains permanent cuts of 8 positions, with 1 budgeted but unfilled Attorney position. This position will likely need to be filled when normal activity resumes in permitting and land use. It is my intent to continue to permanently reduce this Office's Support Staff through .normal attrition until I reach a ratio of approximately 1 Support Staff person per Attorney,. which my research has found. is typical throughout County Attorney Offices in this State. Utilizing a portion of our savings in Personnel Costs, I increased outside counsel expenses in this year's budget from $100,000 to $200,000 in anticipation .of defending several.actions most notably the Hussey matter, a Bert Harris claim in excess of $90,000,000. Anyunused funds budgeted for outside counsel will be returned to the Board. I did not request any funds for Capital Outlay. With staff reductions, we have surplus computers and printers which will be utilized to replace equipment when needed. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 Page 8 of 12 . 6. Public Records and Sunshine Law. This Office will educate and update County staff, and advisory board members through periodic workshops/seminars, (e.g. Sunshine. Law, Public Records Act, State and local ethics law). Self Analysis I believe that I met this goal. By the end of August 2009, our attorneys will have made 18 presentations / workshops / seminars to County staff and advisory board members. 1. September 3, 2008 presentation to the zoning staff relating to conditions of approval; 2. September 15, 2008 presentation to the environmental staff relating to conditions of approval; 3. September 15, 2008 presentation to all advisory board. members relating to Sunshine Law, Ethics, and Public Records Act; 4. September 22, 2008 presentation to transportation staff relating to conditions of approval; 5. October 27,2008 presentation to zoning staff relating to fee simple ownership and deeds; 6. November 3,2008 presentation to zoning staff relating to advertising titles; 7. January 12, 2009 presentation to zoning staff relating to SIC codes; 8. January 15,.2009 presentation to Leadership Collier relating to Ethics and Sunshine Law; 9. January 20, 2009 presentation to the Clam Bay Advisory Committee relatil1g to Sunshine Law and Public Records Act; 10. February 9, 2009 presentation to zoning staff relating to advetse possession, easements by necessity and searching the Clerk's records; 11. February 19, 2009 presentation to the Clam Bay Advisory Committee relating to Ethics; 12. March 18, 2009 presentation to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board relating to Ethics; 13. March 26, 2009 presentation to the Pollution Control staff relating to Sunshine Law, Ethics, and Public Records Act; 14. April 13, 2009 presentation to the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Committee relating to Sunshine Law and Public Records Act; 15. April 20, 2009 presentation for New Hire Orientation relating to Ethics. This presentation was videotaped to be presented at future New Hire Orientations; 16. April 20, 2009 presentation to the zoning staff relating to basic real estate and legal descriptions; and 17. June 8, 2009 presentation to the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Committee relating to Ethics. 18. August 20, 2009, presentation to Health and Human Services on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 Page 9 of 12 . 7. Litigation. Commencing in September 2008, we will prepare and distribute concise quarterly . reports forthe Board with respect to current litigation, including potential or anticipated legal issues that may come before the Board of County Commissioners. Self Analysis I . view this as a partial success. We literally started from scratch on this report, which I continue to modify in an attempt to meet the stated objectives. I have provided the Board with litigation update reports on November 5,2008; March 31, 2009 and July 1,2009. The next report will be provided on October 1,2009. As you will have noted from those reports, this Office manages a substantial amount of litigation. As of the July 1,2009, report there was a total of 282. caSes. The chart below shows how those cases are divided up by category. . s of July 1, 2009 I( SF> . *1-1 . ~(/ 11t~ . N .( 160 IlII Complex . Land Use o Personal Injury o Code enforcement . Contracts IlII EminenfDomain . Foreclsoures Ell Claims (no suitfiled). Bankruptcy As an aside, this Office is making an effort to. hire outside counsel firms that are located within Collier County. Although there are several outstanding firms that we can not utilize due to conflict issues, Ibelieve that there are many talented attorneys within the County that Page 10 of 12 . we can use, and with the exception of certain technical expertise that is locally unavailable, my goal over time is to utilize local counsel exclusively. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Rating · 2" '75 8. Opinions File. For purposes of creating consistency in the. legal opinions issued by this Office, and to eliminate duplication of work efforts, we will create an indexed, electronic County Attorney Legal Opinions Database, which will include past opinions of this Office and all future .. opinions. This will serve both as a resource tool when researching issues of law, as well as provide consistency of approach to our.clients, saving time, manpower, and client frustration. Self Analysis I have been successful in creating and utilizing an Opinions database. To date, we have scanned 949 opinions - the oldest from 1982. Of these opinions 318 relate to ethics, 64 relate to public records, 70 relate to sunshine law and 5 relate to records retention. The.other topics covered by the opinions are general administrative, advisory boards,. Airport Authority, Board of County Commissioners, Budget, Community Development and Environmental Services, Conservation Collier, County Manager, Elections, Emergency Services, Public Services, Public Utilities, Real Property, Tourism, Transportation, and other. I have established as Office Policy a requirement that when any legal opinion is requested, the attorney is to first check the Opinions Database to see if the issue has been addressed previously. Ifit has, it is simply a matter of making sure the law is still valid and providing the prior opinion ~d any clarification to the requestor. This fosters the goals of obtaining consistency of approach to our clients, and saves time and labor. To reduce client frustration and misunderstandings, all opinions are required to be in writing. Requiring written opinions also acts as an incentive to carefully check the Opinions Database. Page 11 0[12 . Lastly, prior to a controversial or substantativeopinion being issued, it must be reviewed by either the County Attorney or Deputy County Attorney to assure that all aspects of the issue have been contemplated and fully researched. Commissioner Comments: Below Meets Exceeds Standards Standards Standards 1 2 3 I Ratina .<. '7:$ Page 12 of 12 COUNTY ATTORNEY FY 2008 - 2009 ACTION PLAN 1 EVALUATION SUMMARY OFRATINGS COMMISSIONER .. ITEM FIALA COYLE HALAS HENNING COLETTA AVERAGE Oral Presentations at Meetings 3.00 3.00 0.50 3.00 3.00 2.50 Written Legal Advice 3.00 2.50 1.50 1.00 3.00 2.20 Processing Requests for Legal Services 2.50 3.00 2.50 3.00 3.00 2.80 Client Satisfaction I Peer Review 2.20 3.00 1:20 2.00 3.00 2.28 Fiscal Management 2.30 3.00 2.80 2.00 3.00 2.62 Public Records and Sunshine Law 2.00 3.00 1.50 2.00 3.00 2.30 Litigation 2.30 2.75 2.50 2.00 3.00 2.51 Opinions File \ 2.50 2.75 2.00 2.00 2.50 2.35 Averages Per Commissioner 2.48 2.88 1.81 2.13 2.94 ~ Overall Average I 2.45 I coa60/42 Overall Percentage 82%