New city attorney keeps cities 'above board' New city attorney keeps cities 'above board' (June 11, 2004)

Gary Baum has advised officials to never use e-mail

by Bill D'Agostino

Phe new city attorney could help the City Council stay "out of trouble" with private e-mails, according to an official who worked with him for five years.

Gary Baum, an assistant city attorney in Santa Clara since 1998, accepted the Palo Alto City Council's offer to become the next city attorney this week, he confirmed on Thursday morning.

The City Council is expected to ratify the agreement Monday night, although it could get pushed back a week.

"That office will benefit from a fresh perspective from things and he'll bring it," Councilwoman LaDoris Cordell said of Baum.

One of Baum's areas of expertise in Santa Clara was real estate development, a controversial issue in Palo Alto. Mayor Bern Beecham said he hoped Baum, who advised Santa Clara's planning commission, would help smooth such controversies.

Karen Hardy, the chair of Santa Clara's planning commission, said Baum never expressed "any kind of opinion on development, which I think is appropriate. ... He's been very neutral -- I don't think I could tell you if he had an opinion."

But Hardy, whose been on the commission for five years, said Baum did have a strong opinion about e-mail -- he advised the appointed officials to never use it for official city business.

"He's been very clear that we want to stay above-board legally," Hardy said.

Last year, e-mails from Palo Alto council members spawned a political controversy. The Weekly and the Mercury News, feeling such correspondences were public record, sued to obtain copies of e-mails that officials decided to not release publicly. The city settled, and the newspapers gained access to the e-mail. An Internet bulletin board was also developed through the settlement, to give the public access to such e-mails in the future.

"Maybe he would be good for Palo Alto," Hardy said of Baum. "He could definitely keep them out of trouble."

In Santa Clara, Baum also "strongly discouraged" officials from meeting behind closed doors with interested parties, Hardy noted.

"Some of those rules may be a little different for council" since they are elected officials who like to meet in public with interested parties, Baum said.

Immediately before City Attorney Ariel Calonne left Palo Alto in September, he was in the process of developing new rules to limit elected officials' interactions with interested parties prior to public meetings. Some council members were supportive of the proposal, but many were reticent.

The "worst controversy" Baum had to oversee in Santa Clara was a lawsuit by a resident protesting the City Council's decision to not allow an awning placed on a home, Hardy said. Baum litigated the case, and the city won, she said.

"I'm going to miss him," Hardy added.

Baum will be making $179,000 for Palo Alto. That's a 10 percent raise from his current salary, and about $20,000 more than Calonne was making when he left for Boulder, Colo.

Baum will also get a low-interest loan from the city if he moves within eight miles of Palo Alto's City Hall. He currently lives 18 miles away in San Jose, according to Beecham.

"It's not an easy decision to offer that, but it is another form of compensation, it is another form of incentive," said Councilwoman Judy Kleinberg.

The City Council approved the offer by a 7-2 vote on Monday night with councilmen Vic Ojakian and Jack Morton opposed. Last month, Morton told the Weekly he felt the council was sending a bad message to senior administrators looking to advance by hiring Baum and not Interim City Attorney Wynne Furth. Ojakian did not return a call for comment by press time.

Cordell said she expected Baum would rein in spending on outside legal help "if we need to." The office has eight attorneys, Cordell pointed out. "That's pretty big for a city this size."

Before coming to Santa Clara, Baum, 43, was the city attorney for Morgan Hill. He got his law degree from the University of Southern California, and is a graduate of Whittier College.

When Hardy first heard Baum was applying for the Palo Alto spot, she teased him. "Well, good second fiddles want to play first fiddles," she jibed.

"He just laughed."

Staff writer Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.