PARLIER – Meggin Boranian is direct, practical and pragmatic – three qualities that will serve her well as Parlier’s interim city attorney.
As anyone who has attended a Parlier City Council meeting can attest, decorum, typically, is non-existent. The Brown Act, which governs public meetings, is ignored. Civility is routinely sacrificed on the altar of self-indulgence.
When asked if she is concerned about working with a city council that, at times, can be raucous, Boranian said, “No.”
“Every city council is a challenge,” she said. “Every council has a mix of personalities, backgrounds and other things. The question is: how challenging?”
When asked if she has any trepidation about being the voice of reason and restoring order when it falls out of order, Boranian said, “I am very comfortable doing that. I’ve had to do it in the past.”
Former city attorney Neal Costanzo, who was essentially ousted from the role, was deliberate to the point of being dogmatic. But Costanzo never lost his head even when all of those around were losing theirs. Councilmembers Cathyrn “Kathy” Solorio, Juanita “Janie” Molina, and Diego G. Garza tried, repeatedly, to remove Costanzo. They eventually succeeded during the council’s closed session on July 10 in a 4-1 vote, with Mayor Alma Beltran voting to keep Costanzo in place.
Now Boranian, who was the only lawyer to respond to the city’s call for an interim attorney, has stepped up to help, in her words, “get the city back on track and focus on city business.”
YEARS OF GOVERNMENT SERVICE
Boranian earned her law degree from Western State School of Law in Fullerton. She took out a small loan and started her own firm.
“I thought I’d work for a big firm, but it turns out after interviewing with a couple of big firms, it was not worth it for me,” she said. “This was a time when women who were interviewing for law positions…the interest was not in their qualifications but in their social life.”
Boranian practiced law in Southern California for seven years before she and her husband moved to the Central Valley to raise a family. She said the area was conducive for having a family life.
She sent out applications and received a lot of job offers. The one she accepted was for deputy counsel for Fresno County. She stayed with Fresno County for five years. After taking a year to work with colleagues, she returned to government, taking a job with Madera County in its counsel office.
Boranian has worked as a city attorney for Firebaugh and Mendota. When she worked for the firm of Lozano Smith, she worked for various cities, including Lemoore, Coalinga, Fowler, Reedley and Parlier.
“Wherever Lozano Smith had contracts, some of us were sent out on an as-needed basis to help various cities in the Valley,” she said.
Boranian is a partner in the Clovis firm of Fike and Boranian. She is also a teacher and has taught law courses at Fresno City College.
WORKING FOR PARLIER
Boranian said she agreed to be the interim city attorney because she knew the city needed her help.
“When they asked, I knew I could help them,” she said. “I took a look at their situation and said I would help temporarily.”
Boranian said she did watch a council meeting on YouTube to see how meetings were conducted. She said she is unfazed by the prospect that she may have to quell dissent.
“It is something that the general counsel needs to be aware of. Everyone does it differently,” she said, adding that, on occasion, at district and council meetings, she had to respectfully rein in the participants and return their focus to the subject at hand.
“If someone got out of line and spoke ill of another or was disrespectful to the public, I brought them back in line,” she said.
Boranian said she sees the biggest challenge facing the city is filling its city attorney, engineer finance director and city manager positions. As for getting the city back on track and focused on city business, these must be done in a timely fashion, efficiently and without distraction.
She said the biggest challenge of being a city attorney is understanding that despite how qualified someone is or how good they are at their job, they can be terminated at any time. But here, again, Boranian asserted her pragmatism.
“It’s really only business,” she said.
Regarding the city, Boranian gave it high marks when she was introduced to the public at the last council meeting.
“Parlier is a beautiful town and I am happy to be here,” she said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was updated to clarify the positions being filled at the City of Parlier on Aug. 23, 2024 at 11:12 a.m. PST.
