Town of Brookline FY24 Program Budget
Administration and Finance l Legal
Program Description
The Office of Town Counsel functions as the Town of Brookline’s municipal counsel, providing legal advice to Town officials and employees in Town related matters. With staff support, the Town’s counsel represent the Town and its officials and employees in claims and lawsuits in which they are named as parties, including personal injury and property damage claims that are brought under M.G.L. c. 84 and the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act; at administrative hearings and appeals before state and federal agencies, and in the state and federal trial and appellate courts. The Town’s counsel draft, review and approve contracts, leases, and other municipal legal instruments; respond to open meeting and public records law requests and complaints; provide daily advice to officials, administrators and town and school department employees in matters concerning education, employment, open meeting, public record, conflict of interest, and zoning law; and provide advice and support to Town Meeting members and others in matters pertaining to Town Meeting.
FY24 Objectives
- Offer legal help with the rollout of Planning Department initiatives, including assisting with implementing the action plan to follow the state’s MBTA Communities Act, a potential Linkage Fee Program, and a new Comprehensive Plan.
- Having completed last year’s goal of staff of attending MCAD’s Train-the-Trainer program, take the next step and collaborate with the Human Resources Department and CDICR on providing legal resources to addressing and eliminating workplace discrimination.
- Carry out a comprehensive program for training for members of boards, commissions, and Town Meeting members on the legal requirements applicable to those bodies, such as ethics and conflict of interest laws, Open Meeting Law, Public Records Law, among other topics in which these officials are interested.
- Close out the legal requirements of the now-occupied 22 Tappan Street high school building and associated properties and transition from temporary agreements with MBTA to permanent agreements.
- To assess the legality of proposed warrant articles earlier in the review process to discuss possible legal concerns well in-advance of Town Meeting deadlines.
- Continue to expand the skills, experience, and knowledge of in-house legal staff in more legal areas to lessen the reliance upon outside counsel.
- Continue to offer prompt, sound, and thoughtful legal advice and counsel to Town officials, employees, appointees, departments, boards, and commissions.
- Expand the legal services the Town Counsel’s Office provides to the Public Schools of Brookline.
- Provide legal support with reforming the Town’s typical contracts so they are more uniform, easier to administer, and more protective of the Town in its projects.
- Cooperate with the Town’s salary study to make sure the Town pays legal staff, among other Town employees, comparable salary, benefits, and compensation compared to other public sector employees.
- Continue to investigate more efficient and cost-effective operations and procedures to better protect the Town, and collaboratively work with others on these new policies, practices, and procedures.
- Achieve favorable rulings in the litigation and claims pending against the Town in federal and state courts and administrative agencies.
FY23 Accomplishments
- Assisted stakeholders in drafting, amending, and reviewing Town Meeting warrant articles related to cannabis licensing, zero emissions, adoption of the Specialized Energy Code, demolition delays, among many others.
- Successfully defended the Town’s Preservation Commission in a Norfolk Superior Court three-day trial, for its ability to regulate windows to be installed in a historic building.
- Advocated in several labor grievances and arbitrations, such as Joint Labor-Management Committee involving the Police Union contract, and prevailed in a few, including an arbitration about whether employees could gain benefits while on leave, and another arbitration about whether an employee could get benefits the employee claimed he deserved, and the Town disagreed.
- Recovered over $1,700,000 owed to the Town through tax lien foreclosures.
- Assisted in negotiations and successfully resolved an indemnification dispute, avoiding the escalation of costs associated with litigation.
- In collaboration with the Town’s Department of Public Works, secured private commitments to keep Webster Street landscaping.
- Completed collective bargaining agreements with several of the Town’s unions, including AFSCME-Library and Engineers bargaining units.
- Completed collective bargaining with AFSCME-School Traffic Supervisors, but the union membership rejected the agreement, requiring the parties to return to the bargaining table.
- Negotiated claims against the Town achieving settlements with residents, businesses, and insurance companies, providing an average of 25% savings from the amount claimed.
- As counsel advising the ZBA, assisted the Planning staff with several Chapter 40B comprehensive permit applications, including settling a 40B appeal to avoid full hearing where the Town would have been less likely to achieve a better result than what the parties had negotiated.
- Successfully represented the Town’s public bodies in response to Open Meeting Law complaints and Public Record Law request appeals.
- As part of our Community Engagement Goals, restructured the Town Counsel’s Office webpage to improve the legal resources available to the public, Town officials, and employees, and added links to other legal aid resources.
- Completed last year’s goal of staff of attending MCAD’s Train-the-Trainer program and completed many other continuing legal education programs, including MCAD’s investigations training to better help Human Resources Department and CDICR in addressing and eliminating workplace discrimination.
- Help draft and review many legal documents, such as contracts, agreements, and documents recorded at the Registry of Deeds, along with many other non-legal documents related to public records requests, press releases, and information for the community.
- Collaborated with Office colleagues addressing the shared computer drive that has years of Town Counsel’s Office work product to better organize and better leverage the Office’s collective knowledge.