Monterey Park Keeps Law Firm After It Cuts Its Fees

The City Council has decided to keep its attorney, after all.

After interviewing five law firms and three lawyers bidding to replace Anthony Canzoneri and his firm, Brown, Winfield & Canzoneri, the council voted 4 to 1 Tuesday night to retain Canzoneri.

Complaints by city officials about excessive legal fees led the council to seek proposals from other lawyers. Monterey Park paid Brown, Winfield & Canzoneri $685,778 last year, much of it to defend a suit by a restaurant owner over earthquake damage. That case was settled out of court.

But after being threatened with dismissal, the firm promised to reduce its monthly cap, or the maximum it could charge for general municipal work, from $7,500 to $5,000. It was an offer that the City Council couldn’t refuse, Mayor Judy Chu said Wednesday. The reduced cap will be in effect until June, 1991.

Canzoneri could not be reached for comment. Chu said Brown, Winfield & Canzoneri also agreed to include so-called “carry-over” meetings--council meetings continued to the next day--in the monthly cap. Before, the firm had been charging hourly rates of $125 over and above the $7,500 monthly maximum for such meetings.

“We looked very, very carefully at all the proposals. They were really the most competitive,” Chu said, adding that the firm she thought was the next-closest bidder, Burke, Williams & Sorensen, proposed a $5,520 monthly cap but charged up to $195 an hour.

Councilman Samuel Kiang voted against keeping Canzoneri, saying he preferred an in-house attorney.