Our Clients

Kudos

Chris Truebridge, President, Shapell Homes, Northern California

"Joanne Brion has been an invaluable consultant to our firm over the past three years. Her technical expertise, common sense and firm resolve in explaining, and if needed, in defending her work has put her out on point on many important issues for our firm. Joanne may not always appreciate it, but my highest compliment is to allow her to attend meetings and represent our position without other Shapell staff present. I rarely vary from our company standard on this issue, but my confidence in Joanne allows me the luxury of breaking my own rule."

Kristen Anderson, Child Care Coordinator, Redwood City

"Joanne's work in the child care policy and planning arena has benefited not only her public agency and developer clients but the child care field as well. Since I first worked with Joanne on the South San Francisco child care facilities fee study, I have seen her apply her knowledge of urban planning and economic analysis to various child care projects, resulting in innovative methodologies and useful research and policy studies. Her understanding of families' child care needs and communities' development issues lead to thorough and balanced presentations of policy options. I've enjoyed very much working with Joanne over the years and highly recommend her!"

Timothy Tosta, Attorney, Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps, LLP

"Some seemingly unsolvable conflicts simply require appropriate deconstruction to solvable parts leading to creative solutions. Joanne Brion has contributed mightily in helping us untangle several Gordian knots. Joanne has been a delight to have on our professional team. First, she is incredibly insightful. Second, she knows her profession; she is extraordinarily competent. Third, she is a team player, no runaway ego, just solid thinking and advice. Finally, she is very cost effective. She uses her time efficiently and effectively. She produces only that product necessary to respond to the issue at hand. My professional life is enhanced by Joanne’s contributions to our client representations."

Alex Clemens, Barbary Coast Consulting

"Joanne Brion is thoughtful, insightful, professional and wise. Her reach extends far beyond economic analysis - she thinks about people, connections, circumstances, and interactions. All too often, urban analysts limit themselves to technical abstractions - whereas Joanne is fluent in numbers, realities, poetry AND prose."

Daniel Muller, Attorney, Morgan Miller Blair

"Joanne is a team player who has provided invaluable analysis on several cases involving development impact fees. In a lawsuit challenging the city's adoption of eight fees, Joanne provided essential litigation support that helped me unwind the city's complex web of calculations. The other cases have involved analyzing voluminous reports and negotiating with cities in various stages of the fee-adoption process. Joanne's background in municipal finance, economics, and land use planning is impressive, and her prior (and continuing) experience working for cities lends additional credibility to her already excellent work. Her work product is always timely, and she has a knack for easily untangling and explaining complex infrastructure finance and nexus issues."

Bill Lambert, former Economic Development Manager, City of Berkeley

"I had the pleasure of working with Brion and Associates on two separate contracts during my tenure as Economic Development Manager with the City of Berkeley. Joanne's work is thorough, insightful, complete, realistic, on-budget and on-time! No wonder we hired her for a second job."

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