San Juan City Attorney Leaves for Private Firm

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO —  John R. Shaw, the city attorney for the last six years, resigned this week to take a job as a senior attorney with the private Orange County law firm of Rourke & Woodruff.

Shaw, 46, called his new job “a truly outstanding opportunity to advance my legal career.” His resignation is effective March 22.

Mayor Kenneth E. Friess said he is “absolutely devastated (that Shaw) is leaving. From the standpoint of the things he accomplished for this community, he was the best thing that ever happened to us.”

Among the more prominent cases Shaw handled were legal challenges to San Juan Capistrano’s growth-management and rent-control ordinances.

“John is a great litigator and went to court for us, and got us out of trouble on a number of things,” Friess said.

Shaw’s resignation, however, comes just one week after the City Council unanimously agreed to ask the Orange County district attorney’s office to investigate nearly $400,000 in municipal loan debts incurred by City Manager Stephen B. Julian.

But Shaw, who approved several of the contracts with Julian, and members of the council said Tuesday that the timing of his leave in relation to the potential investigation is only “a coincidence.”

“I suspect that a lot of people will draw that type of conclusion, and the timing is unfortunate, but I don’t think there is any connection,” Friess said. “I was involved in recruiting John, and when he surfaced from that pool of people, he was an absolute diamond dropping from the sky.”

Friess said the city had been actively working to keep Shaw for the last several months and had offered up to “about $92,000 a year,” but it was not enough to keep him.

“I suspect he will make twice as much, or almost twice as much, money as he is making right now,” Friess said. “I knew the day would come when somebody would offer him a big number.”

Shaw said the Julian matter “does not have anything to do with my leaving. . . . I want to emphasize that this call came for me. I was approached by (Rourke & Woodruff) and asked if I wanted to talk about it.”

Shaw is also leaving a city in the midst of a budget crunch. After slicing more than $900,000 from its current $11-million general fund budget for this fiscal year, the city is trying to cut $700,000 more, including laying off two or three permanent, full-time employees, according to a report released this week.

“We’re not in a crisis, but we have to be very pragmatic,” Friess said. “We’ll have to do some fancy footwork, but if we can cut that out, we’ll be in great shape.”

Shaw’s leaving will add to the budget problem, Friess said, adding that until the city finds a replacement, a law firm will probably be hired on a retainer basis.

“It will be a little bit problematic for us and will cost us a little more money, no question about it,” Friess said. “It is a difficult situation, but these kinds of things are always difficult. No one signs on here for a life term.”

Before coming to San Juan Capistrano as its first full-time city attorney, Shaw was city attorney for Pittsburg and assistant city attorney in Walnut Creek, both in Contra Costa County.