City Hiring Law Firm to Defend Against Union Lawsuit

City Council is scheduled to approve a contract with a law firm Tuesday night that would defend Menlo Park against a suit recently filed by labor unions.

The Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees filed a lawsuit against the city last month, demanding be invalidated. 

City Attorney Bill McClure wants to retain Renne, Sloan, Holtzman & Sakai LLP, according to the staff report prepared for the Oct. 18 Council meeting. The firm has worked with him in the past on labor related cases such as Katy Rose, et al. v City of Menlo Park.

Glen Kramer, Interim Personnel Director for Menlo Park, said the firm has been contacted and is prepared to defend the city. He also said, “The cost of this engagement is a not-to-exceed figure of $50,000.” The money would come from a general fund reserve set aside for the Personnel Division.

During election season, Measure L was colloquially referred to as the “Pension Reform Act.”

Voters November 2, 2010 with 8,238 votes for and 3,311 against it. It created a second pension bracket for new city employees who don’t work for the police department. Most notably, it raised the retirement age to 60, and lowered pension benefits to two percent times the number of years the employee has been employed by the city, a number which is then multiplied by their annual base salary.   

The lawsuit claims that Measure L doesn’t abide by acceptable state labor relations practices, and demands that it be nullified. The unions also want all their legal fees paid by the city.

The item is on the consent agenda for the meeting, which means that Council is not expected to discuss it. They will, however, vote to approve it or not.
Olson, Hagel, & Fishburn is representing the unions.

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