Christian L. Bettenhausen is a partner at Jones Mayer, and currently serves as City Attorney for the the City of Placentia (since 2015) and the City of Westminster (since 2021). He previously served as the City Attorney for the cities of Blythe (since 2010) and California City (since 2013). Prior to that he served as a the Assistant or Deputy City Attorney in the cities of Costa Mesa, Fullerton, La Habra and Whittier.
For the last 24 years Mr. Bettenhausen’s practice has focused exclusively on the representation of cities and other public agencies. He is knowledgeable in most areas of the law affecting cities, and regularly advises city councils, city manager’s and department heads on a wide variety of issues. He oversees the resolution of legal issues for every city department, including but not limited to police, fire, public works, development services, code enforcement, Human Resources, community services, city clerk, city administration, and all litigation.
Mr. Bettenhausen has particular expertise in land use and zoning matters, real estate law, public contract law, public works and competitive bidding, leases, development agreements, affordable housing issues, in researching and writing memorandums, and in drafting ordinances and resolutions. He has frequently assisted a number of his clients with the successful placement and passage of tax measures and other ballot initiatives, and in resolving election law matters.
Mr. Bettenhausen frequently provides training and advice on on ethics and conflict of interest matters, the California Public Records Act, and the Ralph M. Brown Act. This includes providing firm clients with the required AB 1234 ethics training.
During his time with the firm Mr. Bettenhausen has successfully resolved numerous difficult, and often novel and/or complex, legal issues for his public agency clients.