The Jersey City Council held a budget hearing for the $4,059,803 allocated to the Law Department in the preliminary $886.5 million spending plan that comes with a 15.5 percent tax hike on Tuesday afternoon.
By Daniel Ulloa/Hudson County View
Corporation Counsel Sarah Levine began by noting that the Law Department has 15 attorneys, which she indicated forces them to consistently make more with less through six teams: Litigation, governance, tax, labor, transactional, and investigative.
“Suffice it to say, the Law Department in my view, is profoundly understaffed for a city of our size with the magnitude of challenges we have. Also, we are trying to do the most with the least. It is my impression, that in years past, before I was in this role, every time an attorney resigned from the Law Department, they were not replaced,” she declared.
“I understand from my predecessor that there were efforts to find replacements, and for whatever reason, the Law Department was not permitted to even maintain it’s former level, much less expand consistent with the expanding legal demands of this city.”
Levine further explained that they inherited $300,000 in legal bills dating back to 2022, yet have still managed to secure dozens of dismissals and settlements without paying any costs.
She said about $3 million of the $4 million budget goes to salaries, while about $875,000 goes to outside counsel – which is covered both by the city’s Insurance Fund Commission and by the Law Department budget.
“Our in-house attorneys are dramatically cheaper,” she noted, highlighting that the department works on about 20 cases at a time at a cost of about $120,000 annually, compared to $40,000 to $60,000 for a single court case to be handled by outside counsel.
Levine also mentioned that 10 years ago, the city had 25 attorneys, noting that it’s very difficult to retain attorneys with the experience they need for the pay being offered. She also said they are “cautiously optimistic” about a tele-work pilot program.
She said they were prioritizing the revenue by maximizing the efficiency of vendors. Levine said they were eager to collect municipal awards and reduce the number of lawsuits they faced.
“There’s a number of areas where training can be useful to make sure we’re not inviting lawsuits,” Levine continued before questioning from the council began.
“I noticed that uh the other expenses portion of your budget has increased … What are some of the reasons for that increase?” asked Council President Denise Ridley.
“For whatever reason, it was not the Law Department that handled that,” Levine replied, later noting that LexisNexis costs about $75,000 a year and is necessary for legal research.
She added that she planned on compiling a list of the existing contract the city has.
“Is there any possibility of doing any shared service with LexisNexis?” Ward D Councilman Jake Ephros asked.
Levine responded that was unlikely since most LexisNexis deals are based on the size of a department using their service.
“We have done our best to negotiate with them,” she also said.
Further, Ridley inquired about why there was a line item budgeted for cleaning, to which Levine said the City Hall roof leaks so much in their third floor office that it creates a considerable mess.
Councilman at-Large Rolando Lavarro said they budgeted for two attorneys and one paralegal versus her request for four more lawyers and asked her to explain how they got there.
Levine said it was difficult to budget for court cases since a range of outcomes can occur, therefore, it’s hard to plan for a settlement or going to trial – which is almost always costly.
“There are an enormous number of unknowns,” she noted, acknowledging such scenarios make it “hard to trim the fat,” as well as that adding two more attorneys would fill “desperately critical needs” for the department.
One option would be hiring a litigator to lessen the case burden and save money on outside counsel.
“To be candid, every single one of our teams could use more support,” Levine argued.
Similarly, she called having just two-and-a-half attorneys for 2,500 cases: “Coo-coo bananas. It is really wild!”
“Could you just detail some of the challenges with hiring?” Ephros asked.
“I think compensation is a huge challenge: It is incredibly expensive to become an attorney. No one in my department works 40 hours a week. My attorneys routinely work evenings and weekends,” Levine answered.
To that end, she said it was less than a third of what a lawyer could make at a high-end law firm.
“We literally don’t have comfortable chairs for them to sit on them,” Levine declared.
That prompted Ephros to ask about their request for more supplies, to which Levine responded that all their furniture is for around 50 years.
“Another thing that makes it hard to recruit attorneys is that we literally don’t have comfortable chairs for them to sit on. Our department has not gotten new furniture since the 80s,” she explained.
“The chair that was behind my desk when I arrived in this job had a coil sticking out of it into my thigh, so I have traded what was once, I’m sure, a very nice chair however many decades ago for one of the chairs that was in the conference room, which is a standard office chair, but it is the Hunger Games on the third floor, looking for desks and comfortable chairs. We were the last floor that was renovated …”
She also said that there is a hole in the ceiling where rain water comes through prominently and they’ve been begging the Business Administrator’s Office for a new desk, further noting that that her staff has been paying for supplies out of pocket.
Ephros said he saw abandoned furniture in the basement that could help and Ward E Councilwoman Elena Little said that they were welcome to use his chair when the council is not convening.
“Is there a plan, BA, to do the necessary repairs from the rain coming inside?” Ephros questioned.
“I’m happy to take that back and ask. I’m well aware I’m not the only department where it rains inside,” Business Administrator Ruby Choi replied.
“Almost all our offices have a leak,” Councilwoman at-Large Mamta Singh noted.
Ephros later asked about tax appeals, to which Levine expressed that a lot of tax appeals are filed in the city and it’s a heavy burden for the department to handle.
He also asked the administration why they wouldn’t hire more attorneys to save money in the long run.
“We spend every week talking about personnel needs. We have weekly meetings with our Finance Department,” explained Choi, noting that many departments are short staffed.
“If I had my druthers, we would have 10 more attorneys tomorrow. Two is a realistic goal to shoot fo,” Levine stated, continuing that three new lawyers were already hired this year to fill vacancies.
Lavarro questioned about how the department goes about enforcing payroll tax payments.
Levine said they file lawsuits as needed, however, there are limitations on their capacity to force companies to pay, suggesting a hiring a new lawyers specifically to provide this function.
This was the second budget hearing the governing body held yesterday, with the Department of Public Safety’s $219.5M spending plan reviewed Tuesday morning, as HCV first reported.
