Thank you for tuning in.
I am Alan Armstrong and I am running for City Attorney.
This is my first time running for political office.
Let me start by telling you a little about myself. I was born in Los Angeles, grew up in Covina, and moved to our home in Huntington Beach in 1987.
I became an attorney in December 1984, having passed the bar examination the first time I took it.
My wife, Margie, and I have been married for 30 years. Our two Eagle Scout sons are now in college. Don, the older, has a graduate fellowship and is doing research on Alzheimer's. Mark, the younger, is a junior majoring in business and plans to go to law school.
I am involved with Boy Scout troop 568, Huntington BeachChamber of Commerce, Orange County Bar Association, St. James Episcopal Church in Newport Beach, and Huntington Beach Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service(RACES). We provide communications at the Fourth of July parade, other events, and at disasters. You can recognize us by our orange jackets. I was president of the West Orange County BarAssociation for the 1996-1997 year.
Let me tell you about some of my experiences, which should help me be a good city attorney.
From 1967, when I graduated from University of California,Riverside with a degree in physics, until the fall of 1993, I was a civil service engineer for the Navy. For most of that time, I worked at the Naval Weapons Station, Seal Beach. I did testing, managed testing, wrote test procedures, and managed a multi-million dollar budget.
The last 2 years of my time at Seal Beach were spent trying to get rid of some old munitions that were an environmental problem. I dealt with the agencies that regulated Toxic Substances, storm water runoff, air quality, and endangered species. The Stephen's Kangaroo Rat lived around the munitions. I also worked to obtain the millions of dollars needed to do the disposal.
My law practice is in its seventh year on Florida St. in Huntington Beach. I do estate planning, conservatorships, probate, bankruptcy, real estate, corporate formation, and some litigation.
Handling accounting of estates has taught me the necessity of accurate and complete accounting and of keeping people informed.
Dealing with conservatorships involving people with mental disorders has given me patience.
Litigation has helped me think on my feet and to use alternative dispute resolution methods whenever possible.
Let me tell you about 3 of my GOALS as your city Attorney.
• Openness and Accountability: Keep you informed of what the City Attorney's Office is doing and lawsuits Huntington Beach is involved in. Provide you and the city council with annual reports showing what the City Attorney's Office did during the each year and comparing it with the previous years.
Most documents filed with the court are available for you to look at if you go to Santa Ana or Westminster. I will put as many of them as possible on the city's web site. I will also have a file available in the City Attorney's Office for you to look at.
Perhaps you will be looking at the web site and realize you know something about a case that we do not know.
• Spend Money Wisely: Spend the money entrusted to the City Attorney wisely, by handling lawsuits in house whenever possible and hiring outside attorneys only when it is best for Huntington Beach.
Outside attorneys will be hired to provide specialized short-term help or to take care of short-term increases in workload.
A Deputy City Attorney will be ready and able to handle the average lawsuit involving the city. If there were some strange facts in the case, I will consider hiring an attorney with a background in cases involving those strange facts. On one hand, if the claim is for injury because of a traffic collision between a city vehicle and the Plaintiff, then a Deputy City Attorney should try the case. On the other hand, for example, if the claim is for injury because of sudden subsidence of ground at an oil field, a specialist may be needed.
• Building Code Enforcement: Resolve Building Code citations quickly to avoid lingering damage to the neighborhood.
As the city and the population ages, we will have more problems with 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 in Huntington Harbour will not be allowed to go on and on. Citations will be issued and the matter will be resolved or it will go to trial.
If the owner is under a conservatorship, I will work with the conservator or the Public Guardian to get the property fixed up as soon as possible. I have handled a number of conservatorships and know many of the people in the County Counsel's office who deal with them.
Let me repeat my three points.
Openness and accountability by the City Attorney. How else will you know what we do and how well we do it.
Spend your money wisely and keep you informed of how your money is spent.
Resolve Building code problems quickly to maintain your quality of life.
My web site is
