The hiring and retention of the Legal Department’s lawyers and paralegals has benefited from salary adjustments provided by the Mayor. Nonetheless, the Legal Department continues to face difficulties in hiring and retaining staff in certain crucial, critical areas, e.g., federal procurements, Section 1983, health law, civil rights, planning, housing, and aviation. Vacancies exist for months resulting in backlogs in legal work and delayed response times on client matters.
The City Attorney, Human Resources Director, and the Chief Procurement Officer recommend that City Council approve spending authority in the amount not to exceed $471,500.00for the purchase of contingent workforce services obtained through HGACBuy and that authorization be given to the Legal Department to issue purchase orders, as necessary, to Robert Half International, Inc. in the amount not to exceed $471,500.00. The spending authority is expected to support the Legal Department’s recruiting needs through the end of the fiscal year. The spend will be less to the degree the Legal Department is able to fill vacancies through traditional means.
Use of recruiting and temporary professional services firms is considered a best practice in the legal field to fill critical shortages. Private law firms and corporate legal departments do not hesitate to use such services. The cost of legal work delayed or done at a lesser level will exceed the expenditure proposed for this agenda item.
The vendor has a track record of efficient, effective and reasonably priced temporary and permanent employee placement and contingent work services. It has a division that specializes in recruiting, placing and providing staff augmentation in the legal field. The vendor maintain a roster of talented attorneys and other legal professionals who are readily available for temporary and permanent staff augmentation.
This recommendation to purchase the requested services through the governmental purchasing cooperative HGACBuy is made pursuant to subsection 271.102(c) of the Texas Local Government Code, which provides that "a local government that purchases goods or services from a cooperative purchasing program or organization satisfies any state law requiring the local government to seek competitive bids for the purchase of the goods or services.”
Hire Houston First: This procurement is exempt for the City's Hire Houston First Ordinance. Bids/proposals were not solicited because the department is utilizing an Interlocal or Cooperative Purchasing Agreement for this purchase.
Pay or Play: The agreement requires compliance with the City’s Pay or Play ordinance regarding health benefits for employees of City contractors. The vendor has elected to pay the Contractor Responsibility Fund in compliance with City policy.
MWBE Information: The contract is being issued with a 10% goal for MWBE participation approved by the Mayor’s Office of Business Opportunity. The following is the MWBE participation designated by the vendor to provide paralegal and personnel placement services:
|
Subcontractor
|
Amount
|
Percentage
|
|
A-1 Personnel of Houston, Inc.
|
$47,150.00
|
10%
|
Fiscal Note:
Funding for this item is included in the FY2023 Adopted Budget. Therefore, no Fiscal Note is required as stated in the Financial Policies.
________________________
Arturo G. Michel, City Attorney
_____________________________________________
Jedediah Greenfield, Interim Chief Procurement Officer
|
Estimated Spending Authority
|
|
DEPARTMENT
|
FY2023
|
OUT YEARS
|
TOTAL
|
|
Legal Department
|
$471,500.00
|
$0.00
|
$471,500.00
|