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To hear her describe it, Jannie Quinn never really intended to become a city attorney it just sort of happened.
As a student at the University of San Diego, Quinn was originally aiming for a career in environmental law. By the time she graduated, her first job was as an insurance litigation attorney at the San Jose firm Robinson & Wood.
One of her first cases involved a trip-and-fall lawsuit in Mountain View, and in collaborating with the city attorney, she learned a little about the job.
“I didn’t even know what a city attorney did,” she said. “What I really liked is it was a job where you worked on so many different legal issues you need to know contract law, public sector law, and you even need to know environmental law.”
After a brief stint at San Jose, Quinn then seven months pregnant took a job at Mountain View as one of the city’s four on-staff attorneys.
Quinn, 55, is now finishing her 24-year career with the city, including a tenure as Mountain View’s first female city attorney. Last week, she announced her plans to retire in August in a letter delivered to the City Council.
Quinn described her decision to leave as bittersweet, and not motivated by anything in particular. The city is in a good place, she said, so it simply seemed like the right time to depart.
Quinn’s tenure has been marked in recent years by many challenges, including the breakup of the city’s revitalization authority, the implementation of rent control and dozens of legal claims. In addition, her job often involves providing level-headed guidance for elected leaders during late-night council meetings.
In particular, she singles out the immense difficulties that arose when the city’s revitalization authority was broken up in 2011 as part of a statewide reform by then-Gov. Jerry Brown. Dissolving the agency and redistributing its assets took two years and required forming a new oversight committee, she said.
She credits that experience with preparing the city for other impactful policy changes. In particular, the passage of rent stabilization required a similar setup of a new committee and exhaustive legal research.
In general, the job has only gotten harder over the years, she said. Cities must constantly adapt to a growing set of codes and regulations coming from state and federal agencies. Meanwhile the city attorney’s office has barely grown today it is an eight-person department but still limited to four attorneys.
In her position, Quinn also became one of the city’s best compensated employees. As of last year, her annual salary was more than $264,000.
What kind of person should Mountain View look for in a new city attorney? Quinn found that question hard to answer.
“It’s going to have to be someone who’s a good listener and enjoys working with people,” she said. “Plus you have to be aware of the particular issues facing Mountain View.”
The city attorney is one of only three City Hall positions, along with the city manager and city clerk, that are directly appointed by the City Council. Council members began discussions for hiring a replacement at their March 5 meeting.
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I hope we get an attorney who can be a fair-minded and neutral advisor. Quinn’s opinion on the applicability of the $3 business license surcharge was incorrect based on the plain language of the statute.
How much does she get paid? How much will she get post-retirement? How will that be paid? Who has applied to replace her? What will her successor have done to land the job? Helped to get higher salaries and pensions and other benefits for some other city’s employees?
We need to overhaul the entire city staff they clearly have there on agenda . This city has turned into a toxic dump .
Interesting,
I still found here conduct regarding agreeing with the TRO with the CAA Measure V challenge a sore thumb regarding her practice.
The Court eventually determined that the CAA had no grounds for the case as a whole.
This means the City should be hiring an attorney requiring strict adhearance with the CSRFA, and assoviated state case law decisions regarding the issues of rent control.
Because her practice of law by Jannie Quinn clearly indicated bias for the benefit of private interests because the city council was also at that time acting for the benefit of the private interests.
The City Citizens must get together to make sure our city attorney will act not just in the interest of the City government and their friends, but all of the city.
I’ve noticed she has a very pro-developer, pro-big-business slant in Council meetings. When Council members ask her a question, she gives the most risk-averse, minimalist answer to them, and the public. In other words, the answers don’t help the public or our council figure out how to protect residents against some of the tactics developers and big business use against us.
I hope the Council considers a new City Attorney who will share information with the public in meetings, and help us navigate options for us, that help us, with all this development. Otherwise the next one will be part of the same problem we have now: developers have been running our show.
When I say “risk averse” I mean with little risk to developers or big business.
I was referred to Ms. Quinn by the police who told me that they could not take action against a violent and disruptive homeless problem in front of my home. Ms. Quinn was initially unresponsive and then after additional contact to her office finally responded. Her hands off policy of dealing with homelessness puts all Mountain View citizens at risk. Let’s hope her replacement cracks down on homelessness by vigorously enforcement of the law. Doing so will help avoid crime and public health crises.