Meet Bruce Goldstein, the newly promoted Sonoma County Counsel.
Bruce Goldstein, who was recently appointed the next Sonoma County Counsel, started working in the Sonoma County Counsel’s office in 1997. When he arrived that year, he began working with child welfare cases…and realized he was right back where he started.
Following receiving his undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley, Goldstein became the assistant director of the California Child, Youth and Family Coalition in San Francisco. During his days at Stanford Law School, he worked for a variety of organizations in the field of legal services for children; he was a law clerk with Legal Services for Children in San Francisco and the law student director for the Community Law Project in East Palo Alto. His community work has included helping youth in immigration hearings, helping low-income community members and advocating for high-risk families.
After graduating from Stanford Law School in 1988, Goldstein joined the San Francisco law firm of Farella, Braun & Martel. As senior counsel, he managed a variety of construction, contract and employment litigation cases. When he and his family moved to Sonoma County in 1994, he began searching for a way to bring his legal talents to community service. He was hired 13 years ago as a Deputy County Counsel and assigned to represent County child protective services in juvenile dependency cases—a far cry from his professional focus on corporate litigation but a lot like the work he’d done during law school.
“Going from complex business litigation at a San Francisco law firm to juvenile dependency was a different slice of life,” says Goldstein. “But I had a history of working on juvenile justice issues, so it felt like coming full circle.”
The County Counsel’s office serves as legal counsel on all civil matters for the 26 county departments and 25 special districts, as well as many affiliated agencies such as the Sonoma County Water Agency. The office was hired to represent The Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) District, which was established in 2003 to bring passenger rail to Sonoma and Marin counties. It wrote the legislation that created the agency and continues to represent it as SMART works to become operational in 2014.
“We’re very committed to making sure the county receives the highest quality legal representation as it works to meet the community’s needs and acts as a leader in a number of fields, such as the Sonoma County Energy Independence Program [SCEIP],” says Goldstein. “It’s a dynamic place to work, and I believe the Board of Supervisors has shown great leadership.”
Well protected
Valerie Brown, the current chair of the Board of Supervisors, says the board relies on the guidance and advice of the County Counsel on just about every item it considers, whether it’s water policy, a proposed ordinance or consideration of a major land use project.
“The role of the County Counsel is to protect the board, from a legal standpoint, when it comes to policy decisions,” says Brown. She cited a recent example of the review and approval of the Health Care Access Agreement with Sutter Hospital, a key component of Sutter’s plans for a new hospital facility. “We couldn’t have wound through the Sutter Hospital process if we didn’t have County Counsel working with us on a day-to-day basis reviewing documents.”
Brown says the entire board “realized how extraordinary our County Counsel has been in developing that agreement. Every department has reason to go to County Counsel; we expect them to do that and want them to err on the side of the law and be very careful about doing that.”
The County Counsel is the person who “looks at the County Counsel’s office and decides which attorney is right for a particular issue,” says Brown. “It’s quite a job, and Bruce is exactly the right person for it. We’ve been blessed with Steven Woodside in terms of his personality and expertise, and I think Bruce is really that kind of person also.”
Brown also praised Goldstein’s work on the county’s Indian gaming issues, citing his expertise, experience and his work as lead negotiator in the $100 million mitigation agreement with the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians related to River Rock Casino. And his work in that area extends well beyond the county line—he is the Chairperson of the County Counsel Association Native Lands Committee, which provides advice to the California State Association of Counties (CSAC) on Indian affairs issues and convenes monthly statewide meetings of County Counsel attorneys on emerging Indian law issues.
“He’s really worked hard to make sure the county is protected and the things we do are in keeping with the county’s process and the laws that are out there,” says Brown. “And he’s always been interested in working with fellow County Counsels across the state and their role in county government. It’s very important to keep connected with the other 57 counties.”
Getting started
For his first eight years in the County Counsel’s office, his work in the juvenile dependency group involved Child Protective Services (CPS), operated by the Family Youth & Children’s Service division of the county Human Services Department. “It’s interesting that even though it’s not often what people think of in terms the County Counsel’s office, it is a significant part of what we do,” says Goldstein. There are four attorneys in the juvenile dependency group, and they carry an open caseload of nearly 500 cases.
He holds the attorneys and social workers dealing with difficult family issues in high regard. “They’re the unsung heroes,” Goldstein says. With four of the office’s 25 attorneys, the juvenile dependency group makes up about one-seventh of the office’s budget. The attorneys represent social workers involved in working with families to determine whether a child who’s at serious risk can remain in the home or should be removed. While the emphasis is on reuniting families, there are cases where the situation is so dire that reunification is not recommended.
“The social workers and the attorneys who are working on cases of abuse, molestation and neglect work hard to focus on the needs of the children,” says Goldstein. “You’re working hard to resolve things without a trial and get people to focus on what the child’s best interests are.”
The bigger picture
In 2005, Goldstein was promoted to Assistant County Counsel, where he managed the day-to-day operations of the office, including budget formation, client relations, personnel hiring and development. That’s also when he became the lead negotiator in the Dry Creek Rancheria case and coordinated the county’s approach to major litigation, including supervising outside counsel.
Leaving the juvenile dependency group allowed him to see how it affected him and deepened his respect for his colleagues. “I did it for eight years, but when you step away from it, you get the sense of the burden you personally bear dealing with that kind of case on a day-to-day basis,” says Goldstein. “It left me with a greater respect for the work that social workers and attorneys do.”
Through his work developing CPS policies and procedures for the County Indian Child Welfare Act, he became involved in Indian gaming issues and today works with the CSAC to share information with other County Counsels. “That’s become a focus for me—and it’s a big issue for Sonoma County,” says Goldstein. “I’ve become very involved working on these issues at the federal and state level.”
In addition to his work outside the county with CSAC, Goldstein also served as a Judge Pro Tem in the Sonoma County Superior Court from 2003 to 2005, serving in small claims court cases. From 1990 to 2008, he was an officer and trustee with the Haigh-Scatena Foundation in Davis, where he analyzed grant proposals to fund advocacy programs for at-risk families.
The place to be
Goldstein lives in Glen Ellen with his wife, Vicki Hill, who is a land-use planning consultant, and their 15-year-old son, Griffin. The family enjoys traveling and being outdoors. This past summer they took a two-week rafting trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
It was 16 years ago that he and Vicki moved to Sonoma County. After commuting to San Francisco for a year and half, he decided it was time for a change. “I was working for a great law firm, but I’d been involved in doing public interest work for a long time and I was interested in getting back into that,” says Goldstein. “I started looking for an opportunity to get involved in the Sonoma County legal community.”
He found that opportunity in the County Counsel’s office. “Working in a County Counsel’s office is one of the best legal jobs a person can have. Just the atmosphere of working in the county of Sonoma, where both the attorneys and clients are so committed to public service,” says Goldstein. “It’s a special place to be—not to mention living in Sonoma County. Almost everyone who works here feels that way. We’re fortunate to be lawyers who are very excited about our careers and about the challenges.”
Given his extensive background in public service and his advocacy on behalf of children and juvenile justice, it comes as no surprise that Goldstein is motivated by things other than money. And he includes many of his colleagues in that category. “A significant portion of the attorneys in the County Counsel’s office came from private corporate law firms and made conscious decisions to work in an area that may not be as lucrative but that has other benefits in terms of job satisfaction and quality of life,” he says.
“As private practice attorneys, you often feel like you’re having less impact on the overall good of the community. Here, you have the opportunity to do things that promote the county and the public interest.
“We’re especially fortunate in Sonoma County, where we have an exceptional group of lawyers with commitments to public service and who have the training and the background in important areas…. We’re looked to by other counties as leaders in a number of fields, whether it’s land use or Indian affairs,” he says.
Goldstein makes a convincing argument for having the best legal job he can imagine. He loves his co-workers, respects his clients and has the respect of his bosses. And there’s little chance the work will become humdrum. “I think one of the most challenging and interesting parts of the job is that every day, you know there’s going to be some issue coming up that wasn’t part of your schedule,” he says.
“An organization like the County is similar to a $1 billion corporation with 3,500 employees, where we’re essentially the general counsel and are working on a wide variety of issues—human services, water, open space, land acquisition, tort defense, budget issues. And we’re so fortunate in this office: The whole is bigger than the sum of the parts and there’s so much expertise. We have a very dedicated client base, people committed to public service and a real sense of expertise and professionalism. That makes this one of the best legal jobs in the Bay Area.”
Providing a framework
On controversial issues such as development and growth, the County Counsel’s role is strictly advisory. “We’re not policy makers,” says Goldstein. “We try to work with our clients and the Board of Supervisors to give them a legal framework to pursue the board’s policy goals. We act as advisers and work with them creatively to help them achieve their policy goals—whether it’s the Sonoma County Energy Independence Program [SCEIP] or other sorts of initiatives.”
The county’s role as an economic engine can come into play during such deliberations. Recently, Goldstein says, there was a discussion about county government shrinking at the same time it’s working with the SCEIP and other programs to stimulate economic growth.
“I think the county sees its role as trying to stretch very limited resources to meet critical human needs while also trying to promote job creation by taking advantage of our strengths, including the county’s natural beauty, facilitation of green technology and innovation. It’s a challenging but exciting time to be a part of the county,” says Goldstein.
When all is said and done, says Supervisor Brown, the County Counsel must weigh in on every critical issue, whether it’s growth-related, budget or water supply.
“It’s across the board, whether it’s Roblar [rock quarry], Dutra [the Petaluma asphalt plant] or any of those issues,” she says, citing the hot topics of fall 2010. “They’re making sure we’re following state and federal laws, county ordinances and general plan procedures. We’re all aware that, these days, society is pretty litigious and [the Board of Supervisors] is pretty sure it doesn’t matter what we do, we’ll be litigated by one side or the other. There isn’t a place where the County Counsel’s advice is not important.”
Poised for success
It’s remarkable that Goldstein is just the fourth Sonoma County Counsel since the position was established by the state in 1956. One reason, according to Brown, is that the department has been good at grooming successors. “This is one of the best department succession plans we’ve seen,” she says, adding there were three very qualified candidates from within the County Counsel’s office who applied for the job.
“It shows that there was an effort by Steven [Woodside] to fortify the department with really good people,” says Brown. “You always hope people working within an organization can move up in that organization, advancing their careers while staying in their homes and maintaining the continuity already in place in the organization. This really is one of the departments that has achieved that, and Bruce is following in Steven’s footsteps. It’s kind of nice to have it come together like that.”
