City of Inglewood resumes city council meetings

The city of Inglewood will resume regular city council meetings this Tuesday, January 14th, with a full agenda. The most notable item is another hourly rate increase to the city’s outside attorneys and adopting the annual Recognized Obligation Payment Scheduled (ROPS) for approval by the Second Supervisorial District Consolidated Oversight Board for July 2020-June 2021.

The city will spend $360,000 to resurface two swimming pools at Centinela Park. The park’s pool was in the news when a young child drowned in one last year. According to the staff report, funds will be transferred from both the general fund reserves to the capital improvement fund to cover the costs.

Another budget amendment will move money from the general fund reserves to the capital improvement fund to cover bathroom renovations at Rogers Park in the amount of $595,000.

The city will approve the annual ROPS filings which indicates the city expended over $1 million dollars to purchase two homes for two housing lottery winners.

Citing the “most favored nation” clause, the city will provide another hourly increase to outside city attorney’s Miller Barondess (MB) from $550 per hour to $650 per hour. Paralegal services will increase from $150 to $250 per hour.

The accompanying staff report states MB was providing services at a “discount” and requested the increase to ensure the city was receiving the best possible rates.

MB was initially approved in March 2018 at a rate of $450 per hour, under Agreement No. 18-118 which totaled $300,00. The total contract amount has now swelled to $800,000 under a revised agreement in February 2019 which increased the hourly rate to $550.

Finally, the city’s warrant register shows they are a year behind in paying invoices to legal firm Kane, Ballmer & Berkman which date back to January 2019.