Benjamin Pugh: Council’s trust necessary

RACE FOR CITY ATTORNEY

Name: Benjamin Pugh

Age: 30

Occupation: Attorney

Family: Wife Belinda.

Community activities: Board member, Federalist Society, Orange

County Chapter; active member of the Orange County Young Republicans;

member, Notre Dame Club of Orange County.

Education: Bachelor’s in philosophy from UCLA; doctorate from

Notre Dame Law School.

Favorite leader: Ronald Reagan.

Contact information: (714) 960-8593. benjaminpugh@yahoo.com.

PUGH ON:

* SAVING MONEY IN THE CITY ATTORNEY’S OFFICE:

Elect me. I bring the skills to handle the majority of litigation

in-house. For the rare occasions when outside counsel is needed, I

know how big law firms work and, more importantly, which Orange

County lawyers Huntington Beach we can trust to give the best

representation -- lawyers who will not simply use any case as an

excuse to generate as many billable hours as possible.

* RUNNING THE CITY ATTORNEY’S OFFICE MORE EFFICIENTLY:

Again, elect me. I come from a small law firm about the same size

as the city attorney’s office, so I know how to run such an office.

More importantly, I come from the private sector and will bring my

private sector work ethic to Huntington Beach. To quote Vince

Lombardi, “You don’t do things right once in a while, you do things

right all the time.”

* BIGGEST CHALLENGE THAT FACES THE NEW CITY ATTORNEY:

To change the culture of the city attorney’s office, from

referring most litigation out to handling most litigation within. As

a corollary, the City Council needs to regain trust in the legal

advice from the city attorney, and that can only come from

demonstrated excellence in the city attorney’s legal representation.

That demonstrated excellence can only come from making the tough

decisions yourself, rather than relying on the advice of an outside

law firm.

* MOST IMPORTANT LAWSUITS FACING THE CITY:

Currently, the largest in terms of fiscal impact is the Howard

Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association’s lawsuit regarding the city’s illegal

property tax. This is the type of case that the city attorney should

have discovered long before an outside interest group sued. Had the

City Council been given the correct legal advice, the problem could

have been handled much more efficiently, and with dramatically less

costs in attorneys’ fees. It is important for the city attorney to

spot these kinds of potential problems in the future and deal with

them appropriately before spawning years of extremely costly

litigation.