Report to: General Committee - Finance & Admin. Report Date: April 6, 2009

SUBJECT: Legal Fees Increase

PREPARED BY: Catherine Conrad, Town Solicitor

RECOMMENDATION:

1. That the report dated March 30, 2008 entitled “Legal Fees Increase” be received;

2. And that Schedule A to By-law 2002-276, as amended, be further amended in accordance with Appendix A attached hereto, increasing the fees for services charged by the Legal Department and providing for additional fees to be charged as set out in Appendix A;

3. And that the increases in the Legal Fee & Service Charges will be effective June 1^st, 2009;

4. And that notice to the public be provided in accordance with By-law 2002-275, a by-law to prescribe the form, manner and times for the provision of reasonable notice; and

5. And that Staff be authorized and directed to do all things necessary to give effect to this resolution.

1. Purpose 2. Background 3. Discussion 4. Financial 5. Others (Strategic, Affected Units) 6. Attachment(s)

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this report is to obtain authority from Council to increase the legal fees set out in the Town’s User Fee By-law and to establish additional fees for services.

BACKGROUND:

On January 12, 2009, Council approved an increase to all fees and service charges set out in By-law 2002-276 as amended, of 3.7% (based on the Toronto All Items September 2007-2008 CPI index) for 2009, effective March 1^st, 2009. This is the first increase in the fees charged by the Legal Department since 1992. This report recommends additional increases and new fees to align the Legal Department’s fees with those charged by other municipalities.

OPTIONS/ DISCUSSION:

Fees for Legal Department services have been increased, as of March 1, 2009, by 3.7% (CPI) together with all other fees set out in the Town’s Fee By-law. This increase does not take into account that Legal’s fees have not increased since 1992. Appendix A set outs out further increases to the fees for Legal’s services, to bring those fees into alignment with the fees charged by other municipalities. A comparison of the proposed fees with those of Mississauga, Brampton, Barrie, Vaughan, Newmarket, Richmond Hill, Oshawa and Kingston is attached as Appendix B.

In addition, staff are recommending establishing fees for six other services provided by the Legal Department, also as set out in Appendix A.

The proposed fee schedule was presented at a recent meeting of the Developers Group Round Table and there was limited discussion with respect to the fees and very little opposition to the proposed schedule. Notice of these new fees will be provided on the Town’s website and on the Town page of the local Markham newspaper.

FINANCIAL CONSIDERATION

Based on the proposal legal fees increases, as outlined in Appendix A, additional revenues of approximately $7,900 ($15,000 annualized of which $5,916 already reflected in the 2009 budget effected March 1^st – the annualized impact is $7,100), will be generated if the demand for services remains at the 2008 levels. The increase in revenues will be incorporated in the 2010 operating budget.

RECOMMENDED

BY: __________________________ _________________________________

Catherine Conrad, Town Solicitor John Livey, Chief Administrative Officer

Office of the CAO

ATTACHMENTS:

Appendix A – Proposed Legal Fees

Appendix B – Comparison of Markham’s Proposed Legal Fees to Other Municipalities’