To: Board of Supervisors
From: Monica Nino, County Administrator
Report Title: Contract with Independent Counsel, Inc.
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the County Administrator, or designee, to execute a contract with Independent Counsel, Inc. in an amount not to exceed $18,000,000 for mandated criminal conflict defense and other non-criminal legal services for the County's conflict program for the period July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2028, with two two-year renewal options, subject to approval by the County Administrator and approval as to form by County Counsel’s Office.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Contractual services expenditures of $5,000,000 are included in the FY 2025-26 Conflict Defense services budget, which is administered by the County Administrator’s Office. The contract payment limit provides flexibility should additional or infrequent high-cost mandated criminal legal defense services arise, and a budget amendment will be submitted at that time if needed. The proposed initial 3-year contract rates continue to afford an approximate 5% annual increase, due to the high demand and competitive environment of maintaining a robust and experienced panel of conflict defense attorneys.
BACKGROUND:
For over 30 years, the County has contracted the administration of a criminal conflict program for the provision of indigent defense services for clients that cannot be represented by the Public Defender’s Office or the Alternate Defender’s Office. This has involved several tasks: maintaining a list of qualified, independent attorneys willing to take cases that are referred from the County or the Contra Costa County Superior Court, assigning the cases to each attorney, verifying ‘billable hours’ and seeing that the individual attorneys are paid pursuant to contracted rates. The County, in turn, reimburses the contractor for its services and those of the independent attorneys.
On May 23, 2025, the County Administrator’s Office issued Request for Information #RFI_FORMAL-Contr-0000000006, for Indigent Criminal Defense Services with a closing date of June 13, 2025. Independent Counsel, Inc. was the sole respondent and demonstrated the desired expertise, capacity, and availability to provide high-quality legal defense services for the County’s conflict program.
Since 2019, Independent Counsel, Inc. has fulfilled the County’s conflict program obligations under the direct oversight of the County Administrator’s Office. Their services have been consistent and reliable, all while maintaining professional relations and confidence in the services they provide.
Independent Counsel, Inc. also provided relief to the Public Defender’s Office during a period when the department was experiencing a significant increase in new cases (overload cases) that could not be handled due to a lack of attorney case capacity. The County Administrator’s Office and the Human Resources Department have worked diligently with the Public Defender’s Office to evaluate its staffing needs, which has resulted in salary reallocations and classification series restructuring of its attorney classification, as well as increasing the number of attorney positions. Since October of 2021, the Public Defender’s Office has not “overloaded” any cases to the Independent Counsel, Inc. due to lack of capacity.
The County Administrator’s Office notified Independent Counsel, Inc. of its intent to award the contract and has been in negotiations for a new three-year contract with the option to renew for two additional two-year periods. The renewal options will ensure continuity of criminal conflict defense and other non-criminal conflict legal services, as well as remove administrative burdens of frequent solicitations in what the RFI outcome demonstrated to be a non-competitive environment. As of July 3, 2025, both parties have agreed on the contractual terms, which have been submitted to County Counsel for review and approval as to form.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
If the Board does not approve the recommendation, the County will be left without a conflict defense program. The absence of this service provider compromises the County’s ability to meet its legal obligation to provide indigent criminal defense and other mandated non-criminal legal services when the Public Defender or Alternate Defender declares a conflict of interest, or as directed by a judicial officer.