Report criticizes Oregon AG bills
Sunday, April 26, 2009 2:05 PM PDT
SALEM (AP) — The author of a recent report that criticized the Oregon State Hospital for undefined goals and poor planning has issued another harsh critique, this time targeting the Oregon attorney general’s office.
The Statesman Journal reports that retired Lane County Circuit Judge James Hargreaves, hired as a state consultant, examined the billing practices used by the attorney general to charge the Oregon Department of Human Services for legal work. Hargreaves said the attorney general’s office does not detail its billings as well as private law firms do.
‘‘Without specific amounts of time attached to specific tasks it is impossible to audit the work,’’ his 18-page report states.
He also blasted the Department of Human Services, saying it failed to control legal costs.
‘‘DHS has no department-wide policies, procedures or controls in place relating to expending funds for legal services,’’ Hargreaves said in his report. ‘‘Every request for services made to the AG is a ’blank check.’’’
The attorney general’s office bills state agencies $126 per hour to handle legal matters when needed.
The two-year budget for the Department of Human Services sets aside $25 million for legal services. About 80 percent of the legal budget goes to represent the agency’s Children, Adults and Families Division.
Human Services director Bruce Goldberg told the Salem newspaper on Friday that changes will likely be made as a result of the report.
Hargreaves recently was hired by the Department of Human Services to examine the agency’s legal costs.
Attorney General John Kroger, who took office in January, already has launched an in-house review of billing practices with staff comparing practices in Oregon with other states, said Kroger spokesman Tony Green.
Green defended the current billing practices of the attorney general’s office.
‘‘Hargreaves report misses the mark by comparing AG billing practices to those used by private law firms,’’ Green said. ‘‘Fundamentally, the judge is comparing our billing practices to a private for-profit law firm.’’
Green added that more time spent detailing a bill means less time spent working on legal issues.
The state paid Hargreaves a total of $277,440 for two consulting jobs.
He recently took another consulting job in Eastern Europe, where he will evaluate the court system in Moldova.
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Information from: Statesman Journal, http://www.statesmanjournal.com
