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Martin Lysons has now joined San Ramon city leadership team as the new city attorney, coming to San Ramon after five years as the top assistant for the city of Brentwood.
Lysons is four weeks into his new position in San Ramon, taking the place of longtime city attorney Bob Saxe, who recently retired after serving on and off in the position since the 1990s.
“I’d like to continue the legacy of Bob Saxe and the people that have been here before me, they all have the reputation of being results-oriented,” Lysons, 53, said during a recent interview. “They’re not the ones who get in the way of something getting done, they just want to get the job done. I’m hoping that our office will enjoy that same reputation while I’m here.”
Lysons’ background is somewhat winding, both geographically and career-wise. He was born in California, but growing up, his family moved around, following whatever next project came along for his father, who worked for Bechtel.
After attending high school in Pennsylvania, Lysons came back to California for college at Sacramento State University, and has now spent his entire adult life in Contra Costa County.
He started out in his career as a civil engineer, working for the county.
“The more I got involved with the general public and talking to people about projects, I found that I was talking just as much to lawyers as I was to other engineers,” Lysons said. “It got me interested in it.”
With some encouragement from other attorneys he had gotten to know, he applied to and was accepted into law school at University of San Francisco, and then began living a “double life,” he said — engineer in Martinez by day and law student in SF by night.
After graduation, he got a job with the Danville law firm of Gagen McCoy, focusing mostly on land use for 12 years, and then, five years ago, when the opportunity arose, he went to work for the city of Brentwood.
“Brentwood and San Ramon are actually fairly similar in a lot of ways,” Lysons said. “Very dynamic councils, they both have growth issues — and I guess that’s true of all cities these days. They both have distinct identities and value those identities. I felt right at home when I came to San Ramon.”
Now, in his early days as San Ramon city attorney, Lysons said he is excited about the opportunity to return to the San Ramon Valley and to work directly with the council. He anticipates dealing with growth-related issues during his tenure, something affecting many Bay Area cities.
“How to balance growth with the various needs for services and for affordable housing and for jobs- housing balance,” he said. “All of those come into play when you’re permitting and allowing development to take place.”
And while he doesn’t do engineering work any more, Lysons does believe that his engineering background has helped him in his chosen career, both in terms of understanding land use issues and in terms of the mentality required for the job.
“Engineering is an approach that you take, that tries to account for every contingency,” he said. “And I think the same is true of a good attorney.”
On a personal level, he appreciates that the new position will allow for a shorter commute — he currently lives in Lafayette with wife and three children. “It will be nice to be able to make it home for ballet recitals,” he said.
Lysons will earn a base salary of $210,000 per year, with a management incentive pay of $500 per month as well as health and retirement benefits. His compensation may be adjusted annually pending the results of his yearly performance evaluation, according to his contract.
