By Michael Martinez, CNN

Los Angeles (CNN) -- The City Council of Fullerton, California, approved Tuesday evening the hiring of an independent consultant to reform the city's police force and review last month's arrest and subsequent death of a homeless schizophrenic man, a spokeswoman said.

Before a gallery of residents angry about the death, the council voted 5-0 to award a one-year $50,000 contract to Michael J. Gennaco, a consultant whose rate is $260 an hour, to examine the police department's policies and practices, city spokeswoman Sylvia Palmer Mudrick said.

The council then approved 4-1 a second contract, also for up to a year, paying Gennaco $30,000 to prepare a public report looking at the July 5 incident involving police and the death of Kelly Thomas, Mudrick said.

Gennaco told the council he will begin investigating the death after the Orange County District Attorney's office completes its own inquiry into the incident, Mudrick said. Gennaco is currently chief attorney for a civilian oversight committee created by the Los Angeles County supervisors to monitor the sheriff's department.

Thomas, 37, died five days after what the Orange County district attorney has called "a violent and desperate struggle" last month with Fullerton police.

Meanwhile, a Los Angeles attorney said he is planning to file a police brutality lawsuit in federal court this week against Fullerton officers in a new unrelated case. But one of the officers in that case was also involved in the Thomas arrest, said the attorney, Garo Mardirossian.

Mardirossian is also representing Thomas' father, Ron, who is alleging that his son was a victim of police brutality and has notified Fullerton city officials that he plans to pursue legal action against them.

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Reprinted in its entirety from CNN.

CNN's Irving Last, Stan Wilson and Marie Malzberg contributed to this report.

August 17, 2011