Next week is the runoff election for Los Angeles City Attorney, between former city councilman Jack Weiss and former prosecutor Carmen Trutanich. But hanging in the balance might be more than just their fates--it might be Mayor Villaraigosa's political clout.
The Los Angeles Times gives the Weiss/Trutanich dustup this spin that makes it about the mayor:
"The mayor's raised money for Jack. The mayor's campaigning for him. He's doing everything he can for Jack," said Richard Katz, a Villaraigosa appointee on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority....Trutanich campaign consultant John Shallman warned that if Weiss wins the general election on Tuesday, it will show that "old-school corrupt machine politics is alive and well" in Los Angeles. Trutanich himself said Weiss, who faced lukewarm reviews from his colleagues and a failed recall attempt from a group of constituents in his Westside district, would never have gotten this far, financially or politically, without aggressive advocacy by the mayor.
Not that the mayor's support has been all pluses for Weiss, who is going into the Tuesday May 19 runoff vote with less money than Trutanich:
Two weeks ago, one of Villaraigosa's pension board appointees was forced to resign after he held a fundraiser for Weiss in violation of the city's ethics law. Weiss said he returned the contributions.
Councilman Dennis P. Zine is openly anti-Weiss, though, publicly calling for an investigation into his fundraising. As the Metropolitan News-Enterprise reports:
Joined by Deputy District Attorney David Berger, a candidate for city attorney in the primary election...Zine told a small but vocal crowd of Trutanich supporters that Weiss lacked the "integrity," "ethics," and "diligence" to become the city's chief prosecutor."I know, after sitting next to Jack Weiss for eight years, Mr. Trutanich is the man I strongly support," he said......Zine also said that when he was in the council chambers he would often find Weiss' seat empty, claiming that the candidate had "missed hundreds" of meetings and was "not attending to the duties [he was] sworn to do.".....
Kevin James, a onetime assistant U.S. attorney who now hosts a radio show and said he lives in Weiss' council district, said "some law enforcement agency with appropriate jurisdiction" should investigate Weiss' campaign fundraising.....
Weiss' campaign manager Ace Smith, who was in the audience yesterday, dismissed the statements made during the press conference as "just reckless, frankly close to libelous charges launches by a campaign on the decline."
The Times' story also reports that a Villaraigosa supporter told a council member vacillating in support for Weiss "that a Weiss victory was critical for Villaraigosa to show that he has clout in a potential race for governor." As his own city's lifestyle and politics mag Los Angeles is about to unveil a new issue baldly declaring the mayor a "failure," Villaraigosa needs all the shows of political clout he can get.
Past City of Angles blogging on the Weiss/Trutanich wars here and here.
(Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)
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Voters should really dig deeper into the reasons why there are calls for an immediate investigation into Jack Weiss's allegedly illegal fundraising. I say 'allegedly' because even though the known facts have been published in the LA Times, an investigation would reveal more evidence as to who else was involved in this activity, when did they become aware of it, and why and by whom, was the decision made to continue a law-breaking fundraiser?
The reported facts are not complex. On April 27, 2009, Jack Weiss attended a fundraiser in Beverly Hills, co-hosted by Kelly Candaele, a City Pensions Board Commissioner. Los Angeles Municipal Code 49.7.8, in a nutshell, prohibits a city appointee from political fundraising and creates a misdemeanor crime for any person who aids and abets such a crime. Jack Weiss knows that law; he voted for it. Jack Weiss also knows that Candaele is a City appointee; Jack Weiss voted to approve Candaele's appointment.
The day after the fundraiser, LA Times reporter David Zahniser contacted the Mayor's Office to ask why a City Commissioner was engaged in prohibited fundraising. The answer? 4 hours later, Candaele resigned. Weiss campaign spokesman Averill 'Ace' Smith issued a statement that the $20,000 in contributions would be returned.
On May 2, 2009, the Campaign Finance Report for the Weiss Campaign was filed under penalty of perjury. The report listed many contributions, however, the section where returned contributions are to be stated, was blank.
Jack Weiss should have known he was participating in a violation of LAMC 49.7.8 the moment he saw Candaele. Weiss could have immediately caledl a halt to the fundraiser and refused to accept contributions. Given that Weiss's campaign manger acknowledged that $20,000 was received at the event, one can only assume that Jack Weiss did not stop the event and accepted the contributions.
We also know that Weiss did not take any measures the following day to rectify the situation, such as informing the City Ethics Commission of the violation (required by law), and instead it appears that but for the intervention of the LA Times, we would never have discovered this matter.
It is the choices Weiss apparently made on April 27-28 that should cause voters the most concern. While we seem to have to accept a certain amount of sleaziness and corruption from politicians, we have to draw the line when the Office of City Attorney is concerned. That is because a City Attorney is the chief law enforcement officer of the City. A person with disregard for the law is wholly unsuitable for a position where decisions are made on who to prosecute, and who not to prosecute, which laws to enforce, and which not to enforce. These are the discretionary functions of the City Attorney, and must be exercised evenly and openly. There is no room for elitism in the serious business of prosecution.
The issue of illegal campaign contributions has dogged Jack Weiss in the past. In a previous campaign, Weiss and other City officeholders, received money-laundered campaign contributions from executives and associates of developer Alan Casden. This was revealed in KNBC's emmy winning investigative report 'Laundered Elections' (Google it) and despite the demand of the City Charter that a candidate pay illegal campaign contributions to the City Treasurer, Weiss has refused to do so. Interestingly, the Mayor who also received money-laundered contributions from Casden's associates, did return a portion of the money.
What is clear is that the City Charter's call for an 'independent' elected City Attorney is never more relevant today that it was when that provision of the Charter was drafted. The notion of an appointed City Attorney was rejected because it focuses too much power in the Mayor. The Mayor has exerted his power in obtaining LAPD Chief Bratton's 'endorsement' of Jack Weiss despite the Christopher Commission disapproving of such conduct. In this election the Mayor's support of Weiss is tantamount to an appointment, and notwithstanding the issues raised above over Jack Weiss's suitability for the Office, the fact that the Mayor will be able to manipulate Jack Weiss to decide City business in the manner that suits the Mayor, flies in the face of 'independence.'
I urge Los Angeleneos to think carefully before punching the ballot for Jack Weiss.