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Tuesday, December 8, 2009

City Holmes Appoints Key City Attorney's Office Staff

Posted by Dominic Holden on Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 4:20 PM

In addition to ousting Tom Carr, voters are also getting a new cadre of leaders at the city attorney's office under the leadership of Pete Holmes. Holmes announced today that Carr's chiefs of the civil division and criminal division, Susanne Skinner and Bob Hood, respectively, will be leaving the office. Were they fired? "I think they reached an agreement with Pete," says Kathy Mulady, who will serve as Holmes's new communications director. Carr didn't have a communications director, not did he have a chief of staff or policy advisor, two new positions in the new Holmes administration.

Here are the key appointments:

Chief of Staff, Darby DuComb: Current director of the City’s Customer Service Bureau, former public defender, and assistant city attorney with experience in land-use litigation.

Criminal Division Chief, Craig Sims: Spent over a decade in the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and president of the Loren Miller Bar Association.

Civil Division Chief, Jean Boler: Member of the City Attorney’s office since 2001 and a civil litigator specializing in complex litigation for more than twenty years.

Special Counsel and Policy Advisor to the City Attorney, John Schochet: A litigation associate in the law office of Dorsey & Whitney with extensive trial court and appellate experience.

Administrator, Jack Robinson: Remains in the same position he has held for the past five years.

Holmes has been meeting with every attorney on Carr's staff over the past three weeks—over 90 of them in all. Some will stay, says Mulady, "but there will be some people let go." She adds, "Some of their own choice, and I think Pete will end up asking a couple people to go as well."

Holmes drubbed Carr in the November election by a 26-point margin. Carr had become widely resented for joining the mayor and police in cracking down on nightclubs, opposing liquor licenses for upstanding businesses, losing high profile cases on the city's behalf, and being overzealous in criminal prosecution of low-level pot smokers. Good riddance.

Comments (5) RSS

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sadly, Holmes has said budget cuts mean he'd have to reduce staff in any case.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on December 8, 2009 at 4:39 PM

@1 Reduce staff? By adding a communications director, chief of staff and policy advisor (all of whom likely make more than the City's prosecutors and civil litigators)?? These are the folks who are going to lock up the bad guys, defend the City's taxpayers in countless frivolous slip-and-fall and pothole lawsuits, write good contracts for our billion-dollar utilities and uphold the city's land use policies? Bullshit. The loss of Suzanne Skinner, a real pro, is huge. I hope (and I hear) that Holmes knows what he's doing, but I'm not sure how bringing in a big-firm litigation associate as "policy advisor" is the best use of scarce taxpayer dollars. Remember, every nickel the City loses in poorly-lawyered lawsuits comes out of the general fund that could otherwise go to providing social services such as homeless shelters and youth and feeding programs.

Posted by kk in seattle on December 8, 2009 at 8:10 PM

#2

Thanks for making the top post election blah blah focused.

I did not like Carr, but, I did not vote for bloated non focused new stuff.

Your point about well administered and low payout claims is VERY well taken.

Holmes scored a big vote, bigger than any of us who supported him had in mind. It is is not a mandate to fluff up staff expenses, or bask in a bloated gilded admin. office.

Time to Watch Holmes and get who we elected now that sour puss is gone - and yes - no faux goodbye to over the top Carr. Over the years in about ten interactions with Carr in various matters, not once was it an OK experience of quality and talent in any direction.

Posted by Vasich Marlow Lamore Wellington on December 9, 2009 at 2:46 AM

Dominic, does McGinn get jealous when you suck Holmes' dick on the side?

Posted by SluttyJournalismWhore on December 9, 2009 at 6:02 AM

Okay, this is ridiculous. First of all, why does the City Attorney NEED a policy advisor? Didn't Holmes campaign on keeping policy decisions out of his work and providing LEGAL advice? Second, it's hysterical to read that Schochet has extensive trial experience. He's been out of law school for FOUR years and already moved firms. He also argued the ridiculous case in which a judge argued he had an attorney-client privilege that PREVENTED public disclosure of documents regarding his SEXUAL HARASSMENT of a subordinate - not exactly the open government slant Holmes claims he takes (and a laughable and losing argument that Schochet made). Holmes is over staffing the top end of the office to shield himself politically (chief of staff? policy advisor? communications director) instead of getting the work done that he's elected to do -LEGAL work, not policy work.

Posted by sure on December 9, 2009 at 11:48 AM