L.A. City Council Looking at Dropping Representation of City Attorney Carmen Trutanich

By Dennis Romero Wed., Jul. 20 2011 at 9:09 AM

'I know this Nuch is ... Trutanich' - Spandau Ballet.

L.A. City Council? Pretty much in the blue corner. L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich? Not so much. (He declines to state). [Added, just in case]: We're talking political affiliation here, with blue equaling Democrat.

And so on Tuesday the City Council voted unanimously to look at ways to obtain legal representation for the body that would come from outside of Trutanich's office. Call it a vote of no confidence in an ongoing rift between the city reps and the elected top-counsel of L.A.

Crazy, innit? But fun to watch:

The proposal to study possible outside representation was brought forward by downtown Councilwoman Jan Perry and South L.A. Councilman Bernard Parks, a former lawman himself (he was once chief of the LAPD).

Jan Perry, on the record:

I am not talking about contracting out for legal services. That's not what I'm interested in. That is not the intention of this report The reason I have done this is out of expressions of concern and frustration as we have worked on some rather complex transactions over the last several years.

The councilwoman argued that City Attorney's office throughout the years, even pre-Trutanich, has been lacking in its deliverance of timely, objective advice to the council.

One idea that will be pondered as part of the approved study of City Attorney alternatives: Split the office into the elected role of prosecutor and an unelected department to deal with legal advice inside City Hall.

Chief Deputy City Attorney William Carter said hell no. L.A. voters elect the City Attorney to do both gigs. Anything less would make the office "not accountable to the voters of the city."

-With reporting from City News Service. Got news? Email us. Follow us on Twitter, too: @dennisjromero.

Tags:

Bernard Parks, City Attorney, City Council, Jan Perry, no confidence, party politics, Trutanich

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anonymous

City Council blue as in "democrats"? A City Council that enriches millionaires & billionaires even as they rip-off the middle class is a new definition of democrat, I don't understand. But then we have Madame Perry representing one of the poorest areas of the city "south 'central' LA" who will sacrifice all for AEG. And, she wants to be Mayor! Why would we allow this idiot to ruin our city as she does downtown. What's in it for her? Free lifetime NFL season tickets or a condo at the Ritz Carlton? Come on LA Weekly, find out where she collected her $200,000 from. No Councilperson has sought to destroy the City Attorney like she does. Something stinks.

Mike

They need someone appointed to agree with everything they're going to benefit from. They need someone disposable and expendable so when the appointee disagrees with their plans, he's fired. Jan Perry must have some ties with AEG, going against the ruling of the billboards issue. Give the City Attorneys Office enough budget to hire attorneys and support staff to do what's expected of them. After all, it was the City Council that decided to cut the office's budget.

Mailprofo

Why don't we examine contracting out the services of these overpaid, overhyped buffoons sitting in the Council chamber? We don't need full time, fat cats like Perry and Parks sitting there, immune from furloughs, paycuts, accountability, common sense, etc. We need Council members working to ensure the sustainable future of Los Angeles, not the future of their mindless and desperate political ambitions.

Guest

Maybe Councilmembers and Parks should also request a study of how other Cities structure their legislative bodies and what they pay their city legislators. As I recall from past years, the LA City Council placed a measure on the ballot regarding ethics reform. However, if you voted for this measure, it also included a provision which required the Councilmembers' salaries to be equal to the LA County judges. In other words, in order to pass an ethics ordinance, one also had to agree to raise the salaries of the Councilmembers. Perhaps we should revisit that pay issue.

I don't know about you, but I certainly don't want the Councilmembers and/or the Mayor to buy their own hired gun. We need a neutral, elected City Attorney.