Practice Summary

Elizabeth (“Betsy”) Martyn is a partner in the Ontario office of Cole Huber LLP, focusing on the representation of public agencies including cities, counties, special districts and joint powers authorities, and the many and varied issues those entities face.

As general or special counsel to public agencies, and a transactional attorney, Betsy regularly attends a variety of public agency meetings and provides advice on the Brown Act, Public Records Act, the Political Reform Act, and other conflicts of interest.  She also serves as successor agency and Oversight Board counsel and has worked on successful litigation against the Department of Finance under the Dissolution law. She is counsel to a number of planning commissions, has drafted zoning codes, as well as reviewed, interpreted, and enforced others and advises on general plan, specific plan and zoning compliance.  Her current assignments include CEQA and NEPA matters, and drafting, reviewing, and interpreting ordinances, resolutions, and diverse types of public contracts, including public agency construction, purchase and professional services contracts.  She developed and has updated forms for public agency construction contracts and has worked on prevailing wage issues, local vendor preference, and disqualification rules for general law cities.

Betsy is working on code enforcement programs for various clients, including a variety of approaches from administrative citations to receiverships, drug house abatement and criminal citations.