CHC 1979-02-13 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MR. CADINHA: Mr. Legaspi , in your experience as County Clerk. . .I 'm asking your opinion, right now, on whether you think the County Council needs separate legal counsel , or not. MR. LEGASPI : My answer to that would be, yes. This issue is not a new issue before the County Council. We had this same concern many years ago. Proponent at that time, I think , was Council Chairman Yamada. At that time, I think, there was a proposal or some sentiments at the legislature for this to come about but unfortunately this did not win support at the legislature. But, again, my experience with the Council and the confrontations with the administration I believe the County Council should have their own legal staff. And, I think like Mr. Steve Bess , in his testimony, I think you could do it in several ways without actually amending the Charter. There is a provision here in my write up. I think it is Number 2, by virtue of Act 62 , the County Council may hire additional staff. This would be non-Civil Service staff which mayA nclude attorneys for any specific assign- ment or role. And also by Charter, I think , by two-thirds vote the County Council may get legal services. Another such measure whereby the County Council might get legal counsel on their staff, you might say, is to in their selection of the County Clerk, their Deputy County Clerk, or their Legislative Auditor which are appointive positions of the County Council , they might want to select an attorney in one of those positions. I say this because relating to the set-up at the legislature, the clerk of the senate is an attorney. The clerk of the house is an attorney. I think the problems you might run into here would be whether this attorney if he is employed by the County Council is permitted or would be allowed to give legal opinions as far as the Charter is concerned. I think not, but again at least you would have a legal body here rendering maybe unofficial opinions or doing some legal research for the Council. MRS. KOBAYASHI : Mr. Legaspi , as the Charter is now stated in 3-7, doesn ' t it already allow the Council the ability to hire its own legal staff? MR. LEGASPI: It does. Like I said, it does , but what they are talking about as far as the County Council is someone more permanent in-house continuous kind of an assignment. Not a one shot ad-hoc or specific assignment. For that section , I believe, that would pertain to a specific issue or a specific problem. MRS. KOBAYASHI : You think it should be more specific then if we decide. . . -4-