1. Describe the extent of your experience managing an office of attorneys and staff including budgeting.

While working for the Navy (civil service), I spent a number of years preparing and monitoring a budget of about four million dollars. In addition, a large portion of my last few years with the Navy were spent determining the cost of cleaning up an environmental problem and making presentations to obtain the funding to do that cleanup.

As a sole practitioner, I do not manage other attorneys. While working for the Navy, I did have a couple of opportunities to manage engineers and technicians. Attorneys, being professionals, should need minimal management. Micro-management will produce poor results. I intend to make sure the attorneys and staff are provided with a goal, direction, and the resources to reach the goal.

My staff and I will become familiar with the operation of all the city’s departments so we can provide the best possible service to the city and its people.

While working for the Navy and in my years as an attorney, I have taken a number of classes in management and dispute resolution.

2. What is your position as to the relationship between the City Attorney and the City Council/Administration? Between the City Attorney and the citizens as a whole? How would you resolve issues when there are apparent differences?

The City Attorney represents the People of Huntington Beach. One of the jobs of the City Attorney is to advise the City Council and City Administration so they act within the law and can do what is right. Attorneys only advise their clients of the consequences of their actions. Clients do not always follow the advice. Those clients sometimes reap the consequences.

Apparent differences can be resolved in a few different ways. In some cases, the law will require one course and it does not matter what the council or the administration wants to do. In other cases, there may be more than one legal course of action. When there are apparent differences and the council plan or the administration plan can be implemented, my training and experience in mediation and arbitration may help resolve the problem. The first thing is to determine what the parties really want and to understand the political consequences of the decision. What the parties really want may be quite different from what they say they want.

3. What amount of money do you expect to spend on your campaign and where will the money come from?

My current budget is $10,000. I am raising this in small amounts from my friends.

4. The City Attorney's office has been characterized by some as too quick to settle ambulance chasing type lawsuits and too slow in resolving violations of ordinances. How would you address these types of issues?

Each lawsuit needs to be evaluated on its own merit. If the city has done something wrong, then the city should correct the problem and settle the lawsuit as quickly and as inexpensively as possible. I will use non-binding arbitration or a statutory offer where possible to pressure settlement. If the complaint is not understandable or it is obvious the city is not liable, I will file a Demurrer. A Demurrer is an attack on the complaint itself. I will not file a Demurrer when it will only educate the Plaintiff and not help get rid of the lawsuit or make it understandable. Where justified, I will file a motion for summary judgment. If the matter will not settle and the city is awarded some or all of its costs, the Plaintiff will receive a bill for those costs.

As the city and the population ages, we will have more violations for homes not being maintained. In some cases, the owner may need a conservatorship. My goal is to get the problem solved as quickly as possible. A problem like Morse Circle will not be allowed to go on and on. For instance, where the Public Guardian becomes the conservator of the person and estate, I will deal with the County Counsel and Public Guardian to get the property fixed up as soon as possible. Having handled a number of conservatorships, I know many of the people in the County Counsel’s office who deal with conservatorships.

5. What is your strategy and what are your priorities for running the City Attorney's office?

My goals are:

1. Keep Huntington Beach out of litigation by writing easily understandable statutes and contracts.
2. Provide useful legal information to city employees.
3. Handle Building Code citations and criminal actions to protect your safety and solve the problem.
4. Spend the money entrusted to me wisely.
5. Keep you informed about what we do and what lawsuits Huntington Beach is involved in by putting information and documents on the Internet.
6. Write the Municipal Code section for the City Attorney's Office.

One of the first steps will be to review the current litigation. Then I will inform the city council which should be settled and the amount of settlement and which should be litigated.

I will also review the budget and make sure the citizens are getting their money's worth. For example, I used to use a case law service that charged about $150 per month (West). I now use one that charges $100 per quarter (Accesslaw). The more expensive service does have attorneys ready to help the attorney do research. The less expensive service does not.

6. Would you increase or decrease the number of attorneys in the office?

I intend to decrease the cost to the city of the City Attorney's office. Outside attorneys will be hired IF they provide special knowledge that is needed for a short term and will probably not be needed again. If the expertise is needed on a more or less continuous basis, I will hire someone with the expertise or have a staff attorney trained in the expertise.

One of the joys of being an attorney is that you are always learning new things and solving new problems. No two cases are exactly alike.

7. How would you determine whether to settle cases or go to trial?

The first question to be answered is: Did the city or its employees do something wrong? If so, then I would recommend settling the case as soon as possible. If settlement is not possible, one of the parties is not properly evaluating the case.

In some cases, the issues can be narrowed. Perhaps the person's damages are known and the only question is who is at fault. In other cases, a range of damages can be set. The Plaintiff will get no less than $X and no more than $10X.

If it looks like a "nuisance lawsuit," I would plan to win on a motion for summary judgment. Individuals and some companies can compare the costs of settlement versus litigation and pay the lesser amount. Large companies and cities are too much of a target to simply settle nuisance lawsuits.

8. A personal injury case on city property has an exposure of $1 million plus and you have decided to go to trial. Do you use one of your deputies for the case or do you contract with an outside attorney? How will you control the flow of city dollars to outside legal firms?

The decision as to which attorney to use would have been made shortly after the lawsuit was filed. I would expect to have a Deputy City Attorney ready and able to handle the average personal injury matter. If there were some strange facts in the case, I would consider hiring an attorney with a background in cases involving those strange facts. On one side, if the claim is for injury because of a traffic collision between a city vehicle and the Plaintiff, then a Deputy City Attorney should be qualified to try the case. On the other side, if the claim is for injury because of sudden subsidence of ground at an oil field, for example, a specialist may be needed.

As I stated above, outside attorneys or law firms will be hired to provide specialized short-term help. I will also look at contract attorneys. Older semi-retired attorneys with special knowledge and law professors can be hired for a particular task at less cost than hiring an entire firm.

The goal is to obtain the best results for the City of Huntington Beach at the least cost.

9. What are your qualifications that will enable you to deal effectively with the routine legal questions that the Council regularly poses during meetings?

My practice is varied. I do mostly Estate Planning and conservatorships. However, I also do a number of Bankruptcies and have done personal injury matters, unlawful detainer actions (landlord and tenant), environmental law, as well as admiralty work.

For a number of years, I have been a panel attorney on the annual "Call A Lawyer" program. People call in with questions in a number of areas. It has helped me develop knowledge in many areas and to think on my feet.

I love the law. Each year I read many books on the law. These include novels (Grisham, Turow, the Rumpole stories) and non-fiction (What Makes Juries Listen Today).

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me to discuss them.

Sincerely,

Alan Leigh Armstrong