Page 358 - FortWorthFY23AdoptedBudget

Horizon Issues

employment cases, due to the voluminous pretrial discovery and evidentiary hearings; additional work will be
required over the next year.

Internal Affairs (IA) is adding 6 new sergeants and will begin processing all disciplinary matters, significantly
increasing IA’s cases. IA regularly asks questions of the CAO about investigations and seeks review of personnel
complaints and suspension letters; with the IA’s increase in volume, the City Attorney’s Office volume will likely
increase.

There has been a marked increase in matters involving land use issues. Changes in 2017 to the annexation statute
required a change to the City’s annexation policy and requires additional legal agreements to be negotiated and
executed with persons annexing into the City, all of which results in a need to dedicate more resources to these
issues. There continues to be an increase in the number of lawsuits related to Code Compliance and zoning, which
has shifted attorney responsibilities to accommodate the litigation and diverted resources from other work.

An increase in complex developer projects that cross multi-departmental lines and that do not have a single City
project manager often necessitates that the attorneys act as the communications coordinator, inter-departmental
liaison, meeting leader, and, at times, to perform a role that comes close to project management.

Human Resources adopted a more formal process for Americans with Disabilities Act accommodation requests,
which includes legal review of the denial letters and the supporting documentation, giving advice to HR and the
departments regarding whether the decision was likely to be upheld, and advising on the language of the denial
letters. In light of the tighter budget constraints on the horizon, more departments will likely choose to deny the
requests, so our workload in this area will likely increase.

The number of employment law claims continues to increase, requiring other litigation attorneys to take on
employment law-related issues and lawsuits, which takes away resources from other areas. With the hiring of an
outside vendor to manage complaints, the department expects an increase in FMLA and ADA complaints needing
review. Also, departments are increasingly relying on the employment attorneys to investigate, evaluate, and
provide guidance related to anticipated disciplinary actions and to provide additional supervisory training.

There has been a steep increase in the number of torts cases with the number of pending cases almost doubling
in less than three years. In the last quarter of 2018, there were sixteen torts cases pending; there were twenty-
four cases pending in the last quarter of 2019; there were twenty-nine cases pending in the last quarter of 2020;
and currently there are thirty-one cases pending for 2021. This is a 93.75% increase in three years.

There is an increasing need for more support staff; each support staff assists 2 or 3 attorneys and increases in
attorney work load transfers to an increase in support staff workload. Support staff in the Litigation Division
perform paralegal work without paralegal pay. The increase in contracts affects the Transactional Division support
staff, including the review of contracts, contract compliance language, performing the necessary research to
ensure that the corporations are in good standing as well as other contract basics prior to being sent for attorney
review. Support staff also assist with purchasing duties, time and attendance, Human Resources Coordinator and
Medical Records custodian duties, safety duties, and reception duties.

With mandatory e-filing, the department's continued implementation of an electronic file-management tool, and
use and reliance on technology continuing to grow, this results in increased work load to administer technology
and train, maintain, and analyze department technology needs.

Page 358 of 623