Mission Statement

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

Budget Overview

The total approved FY23 Operating Budget for the Office of the County Attorney is $6,761,851, an increase of $332,363 or 5.17 percent from the FY22 Approved Budget of $6,429,488. Personnel Costs comprise 87.65 percent of the budget for 79 full-time position(s) and one part-time position(s), and a total of 42.80 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 12.35 percent of the FY23 budget.

The total approved FY21 Operating Budget for the Office of the County Attorney is $6,361,363, an increase of $19,394 or 0.31 percent from the FY20 Approved Budget of $6,341,969. Personnel Costs comprise 86.91 percent of the budget for 76 full-time position(s) and one part-time position(s), and a total of 41.20 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 13.09 percent of the FY21 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 FY22 estimates reflect funding based on the FY22 approved budget. The FY23 and FY24 figures are performance targets based on the FY23 approved budget and funding for comparable service levels in FY24.

Initiatives

• Publishes monthly report in the County's dataMontgomery portal and publishes quarterly reports on the OCA website with status reports covering litigation, contracts, code enforcement, workers compensation and debt collection. Beginning 2022, and in compliance of Bill 19-21, OCA will periodically provide County Executive and County Council certain settlement agreements entered by the County. The County Attorney will also quarterly brief the County Council on pending litigation. OCA supports a responsive and visible government.
• Successfully completed all documents required to submit the Wheaton Office Building to a condominium regime (M-NCPPC owns the building, and the County owns the underground garage), leased a portion of the M-NCPPC condo unit to the County for office space, assisted in the Marian Fryer Plaza to be put to community use, and transferred 8787 Georgia Avenue for redevelopment of M-NCPPC's former headquarters.
• Successfully quieted title to the property located at 4010 Randolph Road in Silver Spring, the Bushey Drive Elementary School site and most recently the headquarters for the County's Department of Recreation. Because OCA quieted title, the County may convey the property to an affordable housing developer who will provide rental and for-sale housing to households whose income is within the range of 30 percent to 70 percent of the area median income for the Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area.
• The new Property and Real Estate Development Project and Transaction Focused Attorney will support the Department of General Services and the Department of Transportation as they engage in significantly more complex real estate development projects that require assigning an experienced lawyer to work exclusively on those projects. Many of these projects will require the creation of development agreements, condominium documents, covenants, easements, and other transactional documents that require months of effort to complete.

Innovations and Productivity Improvements

• Successfully launched the Non-Procurement Contract Portal in accordance with Administrative Procedure 2-4. The portal allows all County agencies to view a list of non-procurement contracts subject to AP 2-4, create an online checklist (e-Checklist) for preparation of contracts, view FAQs (frequently asked questions) related to AP 2-4, and user instructions.
• In collaboration with TEBS and DGS, OCA initiated and helped develop an archiving application to allow County agencies to submit online transmittal form for archiving records with built-in workflows. OCA manages a large volume of legal files that must be kept according to their retention policy. The new application allows agencies to submit requests to archive to DGS electronically, request archived records and return records via the one-stop portal. The project will be completed in FY22 and is in the process of final phase of testing and user training.
• Improved its current version of the Legal Hold application by developing a preservation process. The new processes include a dedicated SharePoint portal to allow OCA to notify agencies to preserve electronic records upon Notice of Claims which may later evolve into lawsuits and created a built-in workflow to send email notifications. The portal allows agencies to respond to preservation notices, track progress, and allow TEBS to place legal holds to O365. The new application enables OCA to track preservation and legal hold records.
• Developed and will implement a new online portal application with built-in workflow to centralize all routing and responses to subpoenas issued to HHS and other agencies for summons of records and witness testimony. OCA processes over 300 subpoenas per year under the current ad hoc and labor-intensive process (snail mail, email, etc.). The new system allows agencies to immediately create an online entry and upload subpoenas to OCA for processing. OCA is notified by the application via email, can file email in the ProLaw case management system, and assign attorneys to respond. This application enables OCA to manage, sort and track all pending subpoenas for appropriate responses, e.g. Motion to Quash/Motion for Protective Order. OCA legal staff can view status of a subpoena and track its outcome accurately.
• Complex County lawsuits with large volumes of depositions, transcripts, exhibits, discovery documents and videos, requiring labor intensive efforts to review, prepare, and compile documents, media files, and deposition transcript excerpts for trial have risen significantly. To make the pre-litigation process manageable, OCA deploys a third-party off-the-shelf cloud-based application to empower attorneys who work on the large lawsuits to better prepare for hearings, depositions, and trials. The software allows for full-text searching, coding, and tagging throughout and across multiple transcripts and records.
• Continues to expand the electronic citation application for use by more departments. Taxicab and Alcohol Beverages Services were added this year and the departments have been trained to issue citations electronically using e-Citation.

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. Under this program, OCA also provides the County with...

  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 transaction 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. Also provides administrative, research, and technical guidance and support to divisions within the Department. Allows for an equitable distribution of work assignments, to cross-train staff, and...