If It’s Not in the Record, It’s Not the Story: Building a Defensible Administrative Record

Sabrina Teller is a senior partner at Remy Moose Manley, LLP, a Sacramento firm focusing on CEQA, NEPA, and other environmental and land use laws. For the last 25 years, she has represented public agencies and private applicants throughout all phases of the administrative and entitlement processes and writ litigation.

Ms. Berglund is an experienced AICP-certified CEQA and land use attorney. Her practice focuses on land use and environmental law, including handling all phases of the land use entitlement and permitting processes, administrative approvals, and litigation. Ms. Berglund has been involved in the entitlement and defense of a wide range of development projects statewide, including affordable housing, mixed-use development, warehouses, commercial development, and renewable energy projects. She is a frequent contributor to CEB’s land use and CEQA practice guides and other publications, and speaks at CEB seminars on emerging trends in environmental and land use law, and teaches CEQA courses for the Association of Environmental Professionals, where she provides practical training to planners, consultants, and agency staff on preparing legally defensible environmental documents. Ms. Berglund also has several years of experience as a community and environmental planner.

Tanya Jones is a Senior Project Manager and CEQA/NEPA specialist with over 18 years of experience managing environmental review for complex public and private projects. She leads multidisciplinary teams and works closely with agencies, applicants, and legal counsel to produce legally defensible environmental documentation. Ms. Jones has extensive experience managing administrative records, documenting project evolution, and maintaining consistency across environmental documents, technical studies, and staff reports. She has supported environmental review for large-scale redevelopment and infrastructure initiatives including port modernization and terminal redevelopment, university campus and waterfront master planning, regional fuel-reduction and wildfire resilience programs, and redevelopment of institutional and mixed-use sites—projects where meticulous record-keeping, version control, and interagency coordination are essential to transparent decision-making and legal defensibility.