Council outlines legal assessment plan; committee will review city attorney and prosecutor services

Susan Payne summarized the legal assessment committee’s 2025 work plan at the Edmonds City Council committee of the whole on Feb. 18, describing private interviews, quarterly check‑ins with Human Resources and contract attorneys, and a September report back to the council.

"We will have private meetings to get feedback and make sure that we can adequately make sure that that we are covering all the territory plus making sure that there aren't any gaps," Payne said, describing a process built on the committee’s prior work. The committee plans private interviews with staff and selected stakeholders and quarterly meetings with HR and the contracted city prosecutor firm.

The work plan covers two parallel reviews: an annual review of the city attorney function and an assessment of the contracted city prosecutor service. Payne said the team will use private interviews and staff‑provided metrics; the committee intends to meet with courthouse staff, law enforcement, the public defender’s office, the city’s public information officer, and domestic‑violence specialists as appropriate. Payne told the committee that the city is in the middle of a five‑year contract with Lighthouse (the city attorney contractor) and that the legal assessment will be an ongoing monitoring process rather than a hiring effort.

For the city prosecutor contract (Walls Law Firm under a flat contract), Payne said the legal assessment group will coordinate quarterly reports with HR and schedule meetings in May and August, with a September presentation to council. Councilmember Jenna and others said they want performance metrics included; Payne and Council President Neil Tippett noted that Lighthouse and the prosecutor’s office already produce annual reports and that those quantitative metrics (for example, case outcomes reported in annual reports) can be requested and incorporated into the committee’s review.

Councilmembers discussed evaluation formats and outreach. Jenna recalled prior practice of circulating written questions to vendors before interviews and urged that the same approach be used this year. Payne said the committee will solicit both written and private in‑person feedback and will return a summarized report to council in September. Councilmember Will and others raised separate concerns about insurance premium increases and asked the city to analyze root causes; Payne and other councilmembers indicated that those issues fall to the city’s risk manager and insurer interactions (WCIA) and are related but outside the immediate legal assessment scope.

Next steps: the legal assessment committee will schedule private interviews, coordinate quarterly check‑ins with HR and the contracted firms, collect stakeholder feedback and metrics, and present findings to the council in September.