Dan Heid has been the City of Auburn’s attorney for more than 16 years.

But as he told Monday’s regular meeting of the Auburn City Council, in June he’s calling it quits.

“I’m 69 years old, and I wanted to retire before I’m 70,” Heid said.

Heid’s retirement caps a legal career spent entirely in the public sector. Before coming to Auburn, he was city attorney for the then-new City of Lakewood, and before that he was attorney in turn for the cities of SeaTac and the Eastern Washington cities of Sunnyside and Toppenish. Prior to that, Heid was an assistant city attorney for the City of Chehalis, and fresh out of law school he was deputy prosecuting attorney for Lewis County.

He graduated from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego in 1975. He is a veteran of the Vietnam War.

“I’ve enjoyed very much what I’ve done,” Heid said. “I’ve worked with some terrific people, and I’ve had the opportunity to do a lot of things I can say of, ‘Hey, I can account for what I was doing that day.’

“That doesn’t mean everything goes the way you want, Sometimes the City gets sued, and you’d rather it had not done that. But if something doesn’t go the way you want it to, that doesn’t take away from the fact that you put your effort in, and you appreciated the opportunity to make a difference.”

Heid and his wife of 45 years, Cheryl, have a constellation of kids and grandkids, and none of them here, he said, so they plan to hit the road and see more of them in the days to come.

“I’d like to see more of my grandkids before they grow up,” Heid said.