Morgan Hill will be losing its top two staff members next month, as City Attorney Danny Wan is the latest to announce he will be resigning his current post – coincidentally following a similar announcement from City Manager Ed Tewes by about three months.
Wan was hired as the Port of Oakland’s general counsel, effective Dec. 17, the port announced last week. He submitted his 30-day notice of resignation Nov. 15.
The port’s board of commissioners voted unanimously to appoint Wan to the position Nov. 15.
As the port’s attorney, Wan will be responsible for advising the port on legal affairs related to the port’s maritime, aviation, and commercial real estate businesses, according to Port of Oakland staff.
“It’s an opportunity I think I cannot pass up. It’s going to be a big challenge,” Wan, a former Oakland City Council member, said Monday.
Part of that challenge includes recent controversy that has besieged the Port of Oakland in recent weeks – most recently with a strike by two unions which shut down the port for 24 hours last week, and earlier this month with the resignation of Executive Director Omar Benjamin after it was found that he paid a $4,500 strip club bill and other questionable expenses with public funds, according to news reports.
“I like challenges,” Wan said in reference to the recent incidents at the Port of Oakland.
He will be overseeing an office of about 14 staff members in the port’s legal department, Wan said. His base salary, not including benefits, will be about $235,000. His salary in Morgan Hill in 2011 was $175,000, not including benefits. There is currently one Deputy City Attorney – Leslie Jensen – in Morgan Hill.
The Port of Oakland oversees the Oakland Seaport, Oakland International Airport, and 20 miles of waterfront. The Oakland seaport is the fifth busiest container port in the U.S., having processed more than 2.3 million containers in 2010. Oakland International Airport is the second largest San Francisco Bay Area airport, and the Port’s real estate includes commercial developments such as Jack London Square and hundreds of acres of public parks and conservation areas.
The Port generates about $6.8 billion annually in business revenue, plus about $4.4 billion in personal income. It supports about 49,000 jobs.
“Mr. Wan brings to this position the ideal background, as public agency legal counsel and executive manager, as a public servant and as a former deputy Port attorney,” Port of Oakland Board President Gilda Gonzales said. “He will help us fulfill our legal duties and responsibilities as a state tidelands trustee in the highly regulated and competitive environment we face.”
“In the past four years, I have had the privilege of working with you and a city staff who collectively represent the model of good government,” Wan said in his notice to the Council. “I am proud to have worked with policy makers and colleagues who not only serve the public with the public good in mind, but who do their service with intellect, respect and undaunted enthusiasm.”
Wan, who plans to remain a resident of Morgan Hill where his parents also live, praised the residents who “make good government possible” with “unselfish service” to the community, his notice of resignation said.
Council members said Wan will be missed. They praised his efforts to close out a number of lawsuits and claims against the city that were active when he arrived in Morgan Hill in 2008, as well as his determined focus to navigate City Hall through the tangled web of redevelopment laws established by the state last year.
“Everybody loves Danny,” Mayor Steve Tate said. “It’s a great opportunity he’s got, and I’m sure he’ll do a wonderful job for them, too.”
The city has hired an outside contractor, Gary Baum, as the Interim City Attorney until a permanent replacement can be found, Tate said. Baum retired as Palo Alto City Attorney in 2010.
The City Council has not yet approved a contract with Baum, but is scheduled to do so at its Dec. 5 meeting.
The city also recently hired executive search firm Bob Murray & Associates to recruit candidates for a permanent replacement for Wan, Tate said. The Council hopes to have a new full-time city attorney by February 2013.
“Danny Wan has been very professional, and committed to what is best for the city,” Councilman Gordon Siebert added. “It will be a loss to the city, and I hope we will find a replacement who will be equally professional and competent.”
Wan will be leaving his Morgan Hill post just days before City Manager Ed Tewes is scheduled to do the same. Tewes, who has served as city manager for 13 years, announced this summer that he will be resigning at the end of December.
The two resignations are unrelated and the timing is coincidental, council members said.
The executive search firm Ralph Anderson & Associates is currently conducting a search for a new city manager for Morgan Hill. The cutoff date for applications was Nov. 16. The mayor said Monday he did not yet know how many applications were submitted, but he and Siebert, who form a Council subcommittee assigned to the search, will begin helping the search firm sift through applications and identify the top candidates in the coming days.
The Council hopes to appoint a new city manager by the beginning of 2013.
Tate and Siebert said they don’t think the resignations of Tewes and Wan in such a close timeframe will be unusually challenging, chiefly because they’re already well on their way in the city manager recruitment.
“It does cause some delay in being able to move forward assertively, but I’m sure we will be well served in the interim,” Siebert said.
Tate added that the two offices are “totally independent,” and he doesn’t recall any Morgan Hill city manager ever having input into the city attorney’s hiring, or vice versa.
“It’s a policy decision, and those people report to the council,” Tate said.
Wan is not new to the Port of Oakland, or to the City of Oakland for that matter. He served as the port’s deputy attorney from 2004 to 2008. Before that, he served on the Oakland City Council while working at a private law practice where he specialized in municipal finance and securities disclosure, according to a press release from the Port of Oakland.
Wan was appointed after a six-month recruitment process conducted by a global executive search firm that led to a pool of nearly 50 applicants, according to the press release.
