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436 Mayor Cavanaugh • December 14, 2000 Page Two have had with Police Department administration you have no doubt learned.of the substantial amount of Department resources and additional burdens the DWI forfeiture law has required of the police. The same is true of our office. Since the new law has gone into effect, we have spent a great deal of time and energy in the prosecution of DWI forfeiture, which was not contemplated in our original compensation package. In addition, there has been a consistent increase in our caseload which requires the commitment of additional attorney time and resources. In 1998 this office had 704 calendar appearances on behalf of the City, which resulted in fines and costs being ordered by the Courts in the amount of $42,071.00. In 1999 these numbers increased to 839 and $55,094.00, respectively. Based on our numbers to date, we project these numbers to increase in 2000 to 955 and $68,294.00. The demands on this office to maintain our past level of service have consistency increased since our initial undertaking and we have no reason to believe these demands will diminish in the upcoming year. It has become apparent that in order to.continue to provide the high quality prosecution and related services the City deserves, we must request an increase in our compensation package. We are currently compensated at the flat rate of $3,000.00 per month and have not requested or received an increase in this rate since 1997. When this figure is broken down against the number of hours our attorneys typically dedicate to the City each month, our effective hourly billing rate works out to be less than $50.00 per hour. (For the first seven months of 2000, our effect hourly rate was $47.57) Currently, our billing rate for private clients ranges from $150.00 and $175.00 per hour, depending on the type of case. We recognize that part of our responsibility in serving as prosecutors for the City is to maintain a reasonable pricing structure, which helps the City in adhering to its own budget constraints. We submit that an effective hourly rate in the range of $80.00 to $90.00 provides sufficient . financial incentive to allow us to continue providing high quality.services and will still helps the City with its budgetary concerns. This goal rate is consistent and in line with other firms in the area that contract for this same type of prosecution services. Conversely, our current effect billing rate is substantially less than comparable contract rates. There are at least two alternatives available to the City. The first, most simple and most predictable for City budget concerns is to simply increase the flat monthly • retainer which would cover all prosecution and related services provided by this office. This is the type of arrangement we currently have with the City. In order to get our