New County Policy Aims to Cap County's Legal Bills

By PAUL J. YOUNG, City News Service:

The Board of Supervisors last week approved guidelines intended to reduce Riverside County’s exposure to civil litigation in the hope of cutting down the millions of dollars paid out annually as a result of lawsuits.

“In my almost two years on the board, I’ve seen substantial, significant lawsuits. Some of them could have been avoided, others not,” said Supervisor Kevin Jeffries, who drafted the provisions.

“You can be sued for anything these days in California. But we must do our best at all levels of county (government) to reduce our exposure and reduce the amounts that are paid,” he said. “I think this is a pretty good plan.”

Jeffries first broached the issue in mid-September, when he proposed making individual county agencies responsible for picking up the lion’s share of lawsuit awards stemming from actions occurring within the agencies.

Jeffries expressed dismay about the outflow of money from the county’s risk management fund -- into which all agencies make a contribution -- and felt that publicly identifying the departments targeted in tort actions and having them shoulder their own legal settlement costs would prove beneficial. Executive Office figures show the county’s liability payouts in 2013-14 totaled $20.9 million.

Jeffries suggested that department heads opposed to having to drain their budgets to cover settlements could appeal to the board -- in open session.

Sheriff Stan Sniff was critical of the concept, submitting a letter to the board saying he would be exposed to “civil vulnerability” if placed in the position of arguing publicly about the different aspects of cases arising from the actions of sheriff’s personnel.

Fellow board members also expressed reservations about Jeffries’ concept, prompting him to withdraw it until he and his staff conducted meetings with agency heads to develop a strategy to increase transparency that would not place undue burdens on county departments.

The “administrative protocol” approved by the board on Tuesday calls for:

• department heads to immediately notify the Office of County Counsel, Executive Office and Department of Human Resources of “significant incidents” that could lead to a lawsuit
• a prompt investigation whenever such incidents are reported
• implementation of general provisions “to increase accountability and reduce the frequency of future liability and litigation”
• regular reporting to the board on resolved or pending litigation

“I share Mr. Jeffries’ concerns,” said Supervisor John Benoit. “We have so many lawsuits, resulting in millions of dollars being paid out. We need to reduce that. The departments need to reduce our liability. We need to give consideration to what can be done in the way of a rapid response.”

The former California Highway Patrol station commander noted that on many occasions, bureaucracy can exacerbate situations in which simple courtesy on the part of government officials can lessen an aggrieved party’s feeling of injustice -- and perhaps make them feel less like suing.

“Our ultimate goal is to protect taxpayer dollars,” said County Counsel Greg Priamos. “We want to successfully and efficiently resolve matters of potential certain liability against the county.”

Jeffries noted that the Office of County Counsel is trying to handle more complex litigation in-house to help control costs.

The supervisor was satisfied with the current level of contributions into the county’s liability fund. According to Jeffries, allocations are based on “80 percent claims history ... and 20 percent department exposure data.”

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