City Has Spent a Total of $1.05 Million on All Leal Expenses from July- November 2011, Almost $400,000 On Outsourcing Litigation.
Sean Greene, in a January 30, 2012 article in The Orange County Register, has reported that the City of Costa Mesa’s total legal expenses for July-November 2011 tallied nearly $1.05 million. More than $400,000 of this was attributable to the City’s oursourcing litigation fight with the Costa Mesa City Employees Association, which reportedly expended 400% less than the city has spent so far. The law firms of Jones and Mayer as well as Jones Day seemed to be the recipients of a lot of the legal expenses paid by Costa Mesa during this time, according to the article. Obviously, some of the employees association representatives have chided the City for spending so much on litigation to save outsourcing costs that might be eaten up in legal fees, rather than go back to the table and try to negotiate the dispute out. (These totals do not even reflect Jones Days’ services for December 2011 and January 2012, amounts not yet billed according to the article.)