From 1985 to 1998, Robert E.Shannon served as the assistant city attorney for Long Beach. The now city attorney has represented city and the Long Beach City Council since 1998 and has been re-elected twice, in 2002 unopposed and 2006 garnering about 70 percent of the vote.

For the fourth time, he is seeking to stay at the helm of a 67-employee staffed office that includes 22 lawyers, running on a platform of experience.

In his tenure, Shannon has provided legal advice to the city council, city manager and department heads in more than 420 open meeting and more than 100 closed sessions, ranging from huge lawsuits to labor negotiation, and other legal matters. He’s managed more than 2,000 lawsuits with a 75 percent success rate. His office also is in charge of providing legal service to several commissions and committees such as the Harbor Commission.

In the past year, his office has been credited with instituting nuisance abatement procedures that resulted in the closure of the New Kennedy and Chief motels, prepared more than 1,400 contracts, 200 resolutions and 150 ordinances.

Shannon’s campaign page, www.votebobshannon.com, cites a successful 2006 lawsuit against Sempra and El Paso gas companies for spiking rates that resulted in more than $10 million for the city and the city attorney’s involvement in the Queen Mary’s bankruptcy lawsuit that allowed the city to recover about $8.6 million.

In the past couple of years his office had to deal with allowing smoking in cigar lounges and hookah bars, the bartering of the Los Cerritos Wetlands, advising on the Port of Long Beach Clean Trucks Program and the associated lawsuit brought on by the American Trucking Association where he deemed the Long Beach Harbor Commission had exclusive authority for agreements, a so-called “donning and doffing” suit filed by about 800 police officers that so far has cost the city about $1.1 million, and an ordinance detailing limits on medical marijuana, which lingered in controversy at city council meetings for several months. Shannon has been widely criticized for conservative restrictions on the ordinance, many of which were included in March, when the ordinance was adopted. Most recently, the city won a lawsuit against insurance company AIG, after it refused reimburse Long Beach for a part of a $20 million 2006 suit.

Responding to the economic climate, the city attorney also had agreed to cut about 20 percent from its budget, which he’s cited in recent discussions with his opponent, City Prosecutor Tom Reeves.

Shannon, who’s garnered more than $66,000 for his campaign, has rejected the city’s matching funds. Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, Sen. Alan Lowenthal, Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, the Long Beach City Attorney’s Association, the Long Beach Firefighters Association, and the Long Beach Police Officer’s Association endorse him.