CAMARILLO : City Attorney Says He Will Step Down

Camarillo City Atty. Colin Lennard announced Wednesday that he will leave his position to join an international law firm.

Lennard, 48, who saw the city through legal challenges over its 1981 slow-growth ordinance and ongoing battles to recover portions of the $25 million lost to bad investments in 1988, will leave Sept. 1. He has held the job since 1983.

Lennard, a partner with the Los Angeles firm of Burke, Williams & Sorensen, which has a contract with the city to provide legal services, will move to the Los Angeles office of Morrison & Foerster.

At Morrison & Foerster, a firm of 550 attorneys with offices throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, Lennard will head the environmental practice division for the Los Angeles office.

“It was a difficult decision to leave the city of Camarillo,” Lennard said. “I have the highest respect for the city staff and the council members.”

Lennard said he and his wife, Joanne, will maintain their Sherman Oaks home.

Lennard became city attorney in 1983, replacing the late Bill Sorensen. Sorensen handled the legal work to incorporate the city of Camarillo in 1963 and became its first city attorney.

Lennard presided over three years of challenges to the city’s ordinance that limits new home building to 400 houses, apartments and condominiums each year. He also has overseen the city’s continuing efforts to recover the financial losses incurred in 1988.

“He was a tremendous help through the financial crisis,” said Councilwoman Sandi Bush, who began her first council term in 1982. “I’m really sorry to lose him because he has just done an outstanding job.

“He has consistently provided us with excellent legal advice.”

The City Council has not decided whether to continue the city’s contract with Burke, Williams & Sorensen, but Bush said she hopes that the city will stay with the firm, which specializes in municipal law.

No date has been set for that decision.