HUMAN RESOURCES  - G. COCHRAN

Approve and adopt new class specification and salary range for Paralegal - County Counsel with a salary range of $18.4904 to $24.7904 per hour.

SBC FILE NUMBER: 630

The Office of the County Counsel is in need of paralegal services.  While the County has an existing class specification for a Paralegal, this class specification was written for an incumbent performing work in the District Attorney’s Office relating to criminal matters.  That class specification is appropriately a part of the County’s General Unit represented by SEIU. 

County Counsel’s work is civil in nature; however, a significant portion of the work in the County Counsel’s Office is employment law related dealing with employee issues and labor negotiations issues.  As such, staff is recommending approval of the attached class specification of Paralegal – County Counsel for use exclusively in the Office of the County Counsel as a confidential position.  The County currently has 13 positions as part of its Confidential Group – these positions exist in Human Resources, County Administration, Information Technology, and County Counsel’s Office and comprises less than 3% of the County’s workforce.

A paralegal position for the County Counsel’s office was requested, but not funded for the 16-17 budget year.  Therefore, the Department is not able to hire a full-time permanent employee in this position at this time.  However, a temporary part-time employee will be hired in this position and used to the extent that funding is available in the Department’s adopted budget.  The budget allocation for a permanent full-time Paralegal may be reconsidered at a later date. 

The salary range proposed is the same as for the current Paralegal class specification which is $18.4904 to $24.7904 per hour.

Adopt the class specification for Paralegal – County Counsel with a salary range of $18.4904 to $24.7904 per hour.