CITY OF STAUNTON VIRGINIA DOUGLAS L. GUYNN CITY ATTORNEY SCHOOL BOARD COUNSEL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY COUNSEL DIRECT DIAL 540.332.3992 GUYNNDL@CI.STAUNTON.VA.US ROBIN S. WALLACE LEGAL MANAGER & FOIA OFFICER DIRECT DIAL 540.332.3999 WALLACERS@CI.STAUNTON.VA.US 116 W. BEVERLEY STREET POST OFFICE BOX 58 STAUNTON, VIRGINIA 24402-0058 FACSIMILE 540.851.4001 MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor and City Council Members FROM: Doug Guynn DATE: September 10, 2020 RE: Conclusion I’m pleased and excited to inform Council that I will be returning to an exclusively private practice of law with my current law firm, probably not later than January 31, 2021. As Council is aware, I’ve continued to have a limited part-time private law practice, which over the more recent past understandably has gotten less of my attention because of City-related demands. With my transition to more regular, exclusive private practice, I’ll have the joy of spending time with the highly able and respected lawyers of my firm and with respected clients who value not just technical attorney knowledge and expertise but also, perhaps more importantly, the experience and independence of a seasoned counsellor at law. As my Virginia law license states and reinforces about the honorable practice of my profession, it is a dual function: “Attorney and Counsellor at Law.” In my career, although I’ve been fortunate to be trusted to lead the advocacy for significant clients in high profile litigation over several decades, including nationally watched constitutional and hostile corporate control cases, it’s the legal counselling role that can be very gratifying particularly in this season of professional life. I thank all the past Councils for the trust and respect, as well as the grit and grace, which the members have shown for the position of City Attorney and for me professionally and personally, regardless of whether I wear socks. I recognize and have the same kind of regard for the City Managers and their staff, who have been excellent colleagues through the easy and the hard issues that are inherently part of yesterday’s and today’s legal environment. All of these folks are the ones who have caused me unexpectedly to stay this long in this role. And it is not lost on me that I got to come “home,” so to speak. I could never have imagined returning to the City where our parents brought us for trusted healthcare, such as with Dr. Harmon and Dr. Hanna, and other services as well as culture and storied history—and to the very building where my dear Mother used to shop with all three Guynn boys at Leggett’s (without using the elevator for her fear that she would get stuck during an electrical storm). These are some of the ties that brought me back and bind me to the Queen City of the Shenandoah Valley. In the role of City Attorney, I’ve sought to have the City’s legal position and advocacy be straightforward and consistent, with resolve: we say what we mean and mean what we say. To its credit, despite pressures, Council historically has been an important part of reinforcing those succinct principles. And in a similar sense of what they represented in values for the City’s legal credibility, it has been a privilege to follow my predecessors as City Attorney, including George Cochran. While I won’t claim or imagine for even a second to have a fraction of his stature in this position, the memory of him—as someone put it, an Atticus Finch— has reminded me of the importance in this role of being an independent thinker, unafraid and undaunted as a proud advocate for the incredible City that is my home of the heart second only to the Army hospital post recalled in the book Hope Reborn of War. For most of my career, I’ve been a private sector professional who substantially has put my own capital and operating equity at risk in the competitive legal services market. And I have always brought that private sector experience and orientation to my role as City Attorney, looking for ways to negotiate more efficiently what might be considered by some as necessary government regulation, unless countervailing important values and principles were at stake. It is that same vantage point that led me in 2008 to decline, because I believed it the right thing to do, a 4% general pay increase that was extended to every other City employee. As a country and region, we were starting at that time to realize (with thanks partly to my dear brother’s Fed) an economic downturn, with pressures on the City budget, and I believed any sacrifice— though counseled by trusted colleagues not to do it—argued for that personal decision despite the disadvantage to me (in the neighborhood of $50K or more of foregone income over the years). I always believed that in the end my City, just as I would expect of myself as an employer, would treat me right and value me fittingly in the long run. I believe these are potentially dangerous times for the City because of the totality of the environment in which the City—as a corporate entity, supported albeit by competent staff—is operating. My genuine hope for the City is that it thrives despite the dangers and challenges that are evident and lurking in the times ahead. But how the City fares will depend in no small measure on the people who lead it, particularly with what has been the generational and other drain of institutional knowledge in key positions through turnover. One of those who will need to lead and not just follow—with respectful input and direction from Council—will be the next City Attorney. In my own time, I’ve been glad to lead and advocate legally for the City’s principled position on a variety of subjects that have been found by Council to be important to the City, such as the vital prerogatives of the City’s Chief Finance Officer (vis a vis the Treasurer), the regulation of sexually oriented businesses (and potentially deleterious effects of them), the protection of the City’s critical water supply of Gardner Spring (yes, the pipeline), the integrity of public body decisionmaking (the BZA), the rule of law which disdains legal rules based on power and privilege (favoritism legislation), and the precedence of City contracts (personnel), among others. Along the way, I even got to help lead the City in buying, of all things, an actual bridge. I wish for the City that the next City Attorney will have truly extensive and varied experience, maybe as much as I fortunately enjoyed, and an independence of thought and spirit and conviction that will gird that person for pressures to come and the fortitude to resist those pressures—and, instead, be a leader as an honest broker of legal information and independent advice in the best 2 interests of the City itself, irrespective of the popularity of the City’s position or the politics of the moment. That combination of attributes will, in today’s world, be harder and harder to find, as a practical matter. I urge Council to keep in mind, too, whether it is the City Attorney position or any other City position, that those who have occupied City positions will be the same people to whom wise interested candidates will turn for candid impressions on what it is like to work for the City—how people are treated and respected in public and private individual and collective actions and words. I’m reminded at this time—and others—of some things that matter in life. That reminder quite unexpectedly found itself in a memorable exchange with Senator John Warner when I interviewed with him and Senator Allen and their chiefs of staff for a presidentially appointed U.S. District judgeship in 2003, a little more than a year before I agreed to be the City Attorney. Senator Warner, who had an impressive bearing, especially as he sat directly to my left, said fairly sternly: Mr. Guynn, Senator Allen and I consider the President to be a good friend of ours. Is there anything in your background that would embarrass the President? (That’s quite a question, and, no, I didn’t tell him about the toga party in law school, although afterwards I thought whimsically that he might enjoy it.) I looked at him, looked at Senator Allen, and looked finally back to Senator Warner, the senior Virginia Senator. I responded: while I respected their relationship with the President and the question, I was more concerned about what my parents, who were deceased too early in life, might think (and find embarrassing) about my choices. Senator Warner smiled and we proceeded to have a further candid and cordial conversation. He and Senator Allen short-listed me to the White House, where I interviewed with two of the President’s lawyers and the Chief Counsel to the Senate Majority Leader. Even today, with my work as City Attorney, I can only hope that my parents would be largely proud of my service to the City and my other endeavors as a citizen-lawyer. There will always be critics and even attempted bullying of anyone who has had to make nonpartisan hard professional decisions or take professional positions adverse to other interests, especially over extended time—and there will always be those who want to second guess and even cast blame in hindsight. Such is life occasionally for those who aspire to higher professionalism. I appreciate that with the pandemic and other demands on everyone, including the upcoming holiday season in November and December, time will be needed for the City to engage in a thoughtful process: perhaps, solicitation and engagement of a professional recruiter, a revisiting of the City Attorney position description, formulation of a recruitment profile and recruitment plan and tools, recruitment, interview and evaluation candidates, and negotiation of hiring terms. Plus, any outstanding candidate will likely require sufficient lead time to make a personal and professional transition, including possibly a geographic move. My hope is that this ample advance notice will afford the City plenty of time, without rush, to consider all of these and other important aspects of the eventual change. I hope that in your process you get various staff input at several levels in the meaningfully development of the profile; they regularly are legal services users and count on the City Attorney to have an open door one floor above or below them to provide ready counsel and support and, yes, sometimes to disagree with their ideas or preferences. In the meantime, I’ll plan to work with staff on remaining shorter-list projects and on issues that can arise in the course of the month and week. I also will look for opportunities to make the transition for my successor even better as much as circumstances realistically accommodate. I look 3 forward to doing my part in concluding my public service with the City in the most professional way, as yet a further service to the City. I’ll also continue to work separately, given that they are distinct clients by engagement, with the School Board and the Economic Development Authority on various matters that are and become in process, supporting the senior management leadership that collaborates with them. I continue to appreciate the opportunity to work with these clients and their members. As you may be aware, I represented the Staunton School Board for several decades from a private practice setting before continuing my service to it in the current, fairly unique public capacity from my in-house position. I have just emailed a copy of this memorandum to the two Council members attending by Zoom. And I have left a copy of this memorandum for Human Resources staff as part of informing them about this decision and placing a copy in my personnel file. I have not (yet) provided a copy of this memorandum to the City Manager. As you know, I am hand delivering a copy of this memorandum to you this evening during a break in your meeting sessions, in a sealed envelope. Thanks for your time. Best heartfelt wishes for this very special City and its people. 4