The City Council has unanimously picked senior assistant city attorney Jannie Quinn to temporarily take over for city attorney Michael Martello when he retires at the end of the year.

Soon to be known as "acting city attorney," Quinn said she has an interest in being city attorney permanently if the council decides to give her the job.

Council members enthusiastically congratulated Quinn after the end of Tuesday's council meeting, when Martello made the announcement. She will fill the position from Jan. 1 to June 30.

As acting city attorney, Quinn takes the reins of a legal department with three other attorney positions and two code enforcement officers. Quinn says she has had an increasingly wide range of exposure to municipal law in her 14 years with the city, where she has supervised code enforcement, filled in for Martello at City Council meetings and played a role in significant legal battles, including a lawsuit with AT&T over the city's cable services.

She said she has also handled contracts with the city's personnel, most of whom are union members.

"I'm very proud of our office," Quinn said. "I think it runs very well and I think our council is very happy with it."

Other transitions are underway in the city attorney's office, Quinn said, as attorneys Kim Cilley and Shelly Emerson retired last year. The city has hired Lynn Dobson and Krishan Chopra to fill their positions. If Quinn becomes city attorney, another staff attorney will be hired.

Quinn has been with Mountain View since 1995, when she was hired as senior deputy city attorney. Before coming to Mountain View she worked for one year with the city of San Jose and two years with San Jose law firm Robinson and Wood, where she said her first two cases out of law school were for the city of Mountain View.

Quinn got her law degree from the University of San Diego in 1988. She lives in San Jose with her husband and two sons, ages 14 and 17.