John A. Lambeth, President of Civitas, specializes in working with property owners, business owners, and cities on urban revitalization projects. Mr. Lambeth, a California special districts attorney, has assisted with the formation and renewal of nearly 100 business improvement districts and provides ongoing advice to districts throughout the state.

He has successfully implemented districts in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, the Bay Area, San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento and Hawaii to name a few. Mr. Lambeth was the primary author of California’s “Property and Business Improvement District Law of 1994” and has worked with Nevada and Hawaii on their BID legislation. He has drafted several amendments to California’s PBID law including 2002 amendments that give PBIDs additional protections and allow for PBIDs to be renewed for up to 10 years and 2004 amendments that allow businesses to be assessed under the PBID Law and allow PBIDs to issue bonds.

Since 1992, Mr. Lambeth has helped several PBIDs and BIDs organize their board of directors, build consensus around service programs, and establish their non-profit corporations. Mr. Lambeth has participated in BID efforts in small, medium and large communities including developing traditional “clean and safe” programs, economic development programs, and marketing programs. He has been involved in every aspect of PBID and BID formation and renewal including: database development and maintenance, building successful BID service programs, developing equitable assessment formulae, negotiating consensus among disparate property and business owners, creating baseline services agreements, and managing petition and ballot campaigns to gain BID approval. Mr. Lambeth serves as on-going legal counsel to many of these Districts assisting with Brown Act and Public Records Act issues.

Mr. Lambeth is active in numerous civic and community organizations. He was appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to chair the Capitol Area Committee, serves as a board member of the California Travel Industry Association and on the Government Relations Committee and is a board member of the California Downtown Association. He is also the past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. Additionally, Mr. Lambeth chairs the State Policy Committee, and serves on the Board and Executive Committee, of the Child Abuse Prevention Center and is an active member of the Downtown Sacramento Rotary Club.

Mr. Lambeth formerly served as clerk to the Honorable Malcolm M. Lucas, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. Mr. Lambeth received his B.A. from Claremont McKenna College with a double major in Philosophy and Political Science. He received his J.D. with distinction from McGeorge School of Law.