Mission Statement

The mission of the Office of the County Attorney (OCA) is to act as the Chief Legal Officer of Montgomery County Government and to conduct all its legal business.

Budget Overview

The total recommended FY24 Operating Budget for the Office of the County Attorney is $7,647,071, an increase of $885,220 or 13.09 percent from the FY23 Approved Budget of $6,761,851. Personnel Costs comprise 89.05 percent of the budget for 78 full-time position(s) and one part-time position(s), and a total of 43.60 FTEs. Total FTEs may include seasonal or temporary positions and may also reflect workforce charged to or from other departments or funds. Operating Expenses account for the remaining 10.95 percent of the FY24 budget.

County Priority Outcomes

While this program area supports all eight of the County Result Areas, the following is emphasized:

• Effective, Sustainable Government

Program Performance Measures

Performance measures for this department are included below (where applicable), with multi-program measures displayed at the front of this section and program-specific measures shown with the relevant program. The FY23 estimates reflect funding based on the FY23 approved budget. The FY24 and FY25 figures are performance targets based on the FY24 recommended budget and funding for comparable service levels in FY25.

Innovations and Productivity Improvements

• OCA is updating its contracting resources for departments by providing standardized contracting forms as well as developing specialized terms and conditions for certain contract types. Such forms will include contract templates and standardized language for use in both contracts and amendments. OCA is also standardizing bond forms for non-construction contracts in which bonding may be required. This will enable departments to process their contracts and amendments more efficiently and ensure compliance with relevant County law.
• OCA successfully secured copyrights for comic scripts, jingles, and animated characters developed for the County's "Salud y Bienestar" (For Our Health and Wellbeing) media campaign, spearheaded by HHS' Latino Health Initiative to bring COVID and general health awareness and information to the County's Latino communities.
• OCA developed and implemented a new online portal application to manage workflow and tracking progress of Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) legal reviews requested by the client. Previously, OCA handled MOUs through an ad-hoc system of emails and spreadsheets with no central management system. The new system allows OCA to be more efficient and streamlined in providing this service and provides the client with up-to-date information on progress and outcomes.
• OCA has led the County's effort to retain and manage a consultant to perform the required disparity study for the County's Minority, Female and Disabled-Owned Businesses (MFD) program. This effort includes working with the Office of Procurement and other departments in County government to obtain relevant data for all County contracts and to liaise with local businesses to ensure opportunities to obtain County contracts are made available to all County businesses.
• In August 2022, OCA, in collaboration with TEBS and DGS, launched the electronic archiving application. OCA played a key part in the design, development, and testing processes. The new application improves the archiving process and eliminates mundane paper process.
• OCA launched the subpoena review application in August 2022, an online application designed to centralize all routing and responses to subpoenas issued to HHS for summons of records and witness testimony. This application enables OCA to manage, sort, and track all pending subpoenas for appropriate responses.

Program Descriptions

  Litigation

Through this program, OCA represents the County (and other members of the Self-Insurance Fund) before all courts and administrative agencies in which claims for relief are sought in connection with alleged wrong-doing by members of the Self-Insurance Fund and their employees. The Litigation program also provides the County with legal...

  General Counsel

This program provides general counsel services to the agencies and instrumentalities of the County government. These general counsel services include providing legal advice to the Executive and Legislative Branches of County government; review of legislation and transactions for legal sufficiency; collection of debts owed to the County; representation of the...

  Administration

Under this program, administrative support, financial and operational management, and oversight is provided in support of the Litigation Program and the General Counsel Program. This program also provides administrative, research, and technical guidance and support to divisions within the Department, allowing for an equitable distribution of work assignments, cross-training of...