Letters

New city attorney is extremely qualified

We have now been treated to Al Roten railing for two consecutive weeks about the selection of our new city attorneys. It is a shame that Mr. Roten does not know Richard Taylor or his firm of Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger, or Jonathan Wittwer of Santa Cruz. I do. Of course, personal knowledge might interfere with Mr. Roten's arguments.

Mr. Roten describes Shute, Mihaly as a "firm with little or no experience." That is simply bizarre. Shute, Mihaly is a small firm with some of the most experienced and respected land-use and environmental attorneys in the area. It is the preeminent environmental and land-use law firm in Northern California and its reputation is not good, it is stellar.

Mr. Roten complains they are not local. Our last city attorney firm was not local, it was in a different county. Mr. Roten seemed to be satisfied with them. Mr. Roten believes it is wrong that Shute, Mihaly associated with Jonathan Wittwer for the Saratoga city attorney work. I am a Governing Board member at West Valley/Mission Community College District, which has had for some time one law firm that does our general law, labor relations and employment law, while a second firm does our land-use and environmental law. It is not an unusual arrangement.

Mr. Roten's charge of "political payback" is offensive and of dubious logic, at best. Are we to believe that Shute, Mihaly drafted Measure G believing they would be hired as Saratoga city attorneys? At the time, the City Council was 5-0 against Measure G, and stridently so.

Our former city attorneys took a highly specialized and technical federal clean-water lawsuit on Saratoga Creek and kept it in-house, rather than referring it to environmental specialists. After five years and more than $150,000 in legal fees, a settlement was reached that could have been agreed to four or five years earlier. The settlement happened only because some brave City Council members insisted on attempting settlement discussions with only the principals present and no attorneys. Mr. Roten was strangely silent about the city's legal bills during that debacle.

Jonathan Wittwer was the longtime deputy county counsel for Santa Cruz County. I personally know elected officials and administrators there and, without exception, they hold Mr. Wittwer in the highest regard. My own experience working with Richard Taylor and with others at Shute, Mihaly is that they are exceptionally talented lawyers and exceptionally good people to work with. I am certain Saratoga will be well served by the council's decision.

Jeffrey A. Schwartz
Governing board member, WVMCCD
San Marcos Road

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