Christi Hogin Stepping Down As City Attorney

MALIBU, CA — Christi Hogin, who has served as Malibu City Attorney for nearly three decades, announced Friday that she will step down from her position.

In an email to city staff, Hogin said that she is retiring Dec. 15 in order to spend more time with her grandchildren.

"Since I met with the first council-elect in August of 1990, I have dedicated myself to advancing Malibu ́s commitment to being a responsible steward of this beautiful piece of California and to protecting local control of this rural residential community," Hogin wrote. "I am grateful to have had the opportunity to serve every city council elected by the community and honored to have served alongside each city manager since incorporation. I thank you for an extraordinary and professionally satisfying experience. The birth of my first grandson has brought me a whole new priority and I choose now to rearrange my life to spend every moment I can with him."

Hogin, who works for the firm Best Best & Krieger, also serves as city attorney for the cities of Artesia, Lomita, and Palos Verdes Estates. She will be retiring from those posts as well. Hogin has been named among California's Top 24 Municipal Lawyers and has been named a Southern California Super Lawyer® by her peers 14 times, including for 2020, according to her BB&K profile.

After Dec. 15, Assistant City Attorney Trevor Rusin will take over as her interim replacement.

The announcement has drawn differing reactions. Mayor Mikke Pierson sang her praises to Patch: "She's great - I've learned so much," he said. "Having a good city attorney doesn't mean getting what everyone wants, but you get what you need to hear, and I appreciate that ... I've learned a lot about what it means to legislate well." Pierson also said that he has known for a while that Hogin has planned to retire.

Attorney and incoming councilmember Bruce Silverstein, on the other hand, has been a consistent critic of both Hogin and City Manager Reva Feldman, and a large part of his campaign was based on a promise to look into firing both of them. Silverstein told Patch that Hogin often provides the city with what he believes to be inaccurate or incomplete legal advice.

"Both she and Trevor tell the City Council what to do - it's not legal advice of any sort - and when they are asked for legal advice, they simply assert a legal conclusion without digging into the reason why they believe that's correct, and far more often than not, the conclusion that they're asserting is not the result of the law being black and white and well-settled," Silverstein argued. "It's just their opinion of what's more probably correct. And that's not what good lawyers do."

Silverstein sent an email Friday to 16 people about Hogin's retirement, writing, "I am pleased that the City Attorney is leaving. My very first campaign commitment was to press to have the City Attorney replaced. So, we are off to a great start."

He also said that he will press for a new city attorney unrelated to Hogin so that a "proper, independent review can be conducted of the legal services she has provided to Malibu over the years."

Silverstein speculates that Hogin's departing the day after he and Steve Uhring - who has also been critical of Hogin - is no coincidence. "Ms. Hogin claims she is retiring to spend more time with her new grandchild. That is a typical excuse for a political appointee who sees the writing on the wall. Outside of the Trump administration, how often are political appointees "fired"? Far more often than not, they "retire" or "resign" for personal reasons in order to avoid the embarrassment of being fired," he wrote in an email to Patch.

Uhring struck a more conciliatory tone, though still seemed animated by the news. "I think Christi’s reason for leaving is exactly as she stated," he wrote in an email. "After a long and successful career as a city attorney she now has the opportunity to do what all grandparents want to do, spend time with their grandchildren. And I wish her the best.

"Change is the ultimate opportunity for transformation and I think that this change bodes well for Malibu. We will get the chance to take a new look at the issues before us and also get a fresh review of possible solutions. When one door closes another one opens. I’m looking forward to see what is behind the new door."

Pierson pushed back on Silverstein's claims that Hogin provides simplistic legal advice. "She taught me the value of really thinking through an item and all the unintended consequences, all of the different legal potential issues," he said. "One of the main things I really learned from her is the value of building consensus. You don't want to show up with a good idea and bring it forward and have everyone go, 'that's wonderful'...Good legislation works when you take the time to circulate among the right people, to help get buy-in, help get advice, help get input, and do that more so when you finally bring it forward, it's more of a celebration than it is a battle. I learned that from [Hogin.] She taught me how to successfully fulfill something I'm passionate about."

He also disputed Silverstein's claim that Hogin provided what should be classified legal information in public. "You can have a meeting in public, you can share, and I think the part [Silverstein] has never experienced, and hopefully he will, is that conversation that maybe goes on for months and months where you work your way through an item, and how to successfully bring it forth," he said. "I can't speak for Bruce, and he's entitled to his own opinion for sure...but sometimes at City Council you have to show all your cards. The public has a right to know what's going on, what the thought process is, and what's gone into it."

Pierson also said that the Council has ensured that Hogin is sharing advice that is allowed to be made public.