Our newly elected city attorney Carmen Trutanich prepares to take office, assembling working groups to help him "restructure" the office, and he appears to have the enthusiastic support of local politics-watchers--as well as some barriers to change from his predecessor.
Local political gadfly and mayoral candidate Zuma Dogg was early with some calls on the Trutanich transition team in late May, and has some predictions about where the new city attorney's attentions might be focused:
The one issue that IS on the front-burner, however, while getting the office "nailed down" during the first 100 days is the billboard law that was discussed this week by City Council. Expect to see a "billboard tax" for operators, which I'm sure many people will be glad to hear about. And you may wonder how changes can be made to the "give away the farm" deal the city gave these billboard operators...THE CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE WILL BE GOING OVER THAT DEAL!
Some older City of Angles blogging on the billboard issue.
The L.A. Times on the working groups:
The working groups will develop "an action plan to restructure and reform the office of the city attorney to better serve the people," Trutanich said....Among other topics, the examination will cover anti-gang programs, public integrity enforcement, how the office is administered and a new unit of professional investigators that Trutanich wants to create.
...and on a barrier that outgoing city attorney Rocky Delgadillo has left for Trutanich, leaving it harder for him to shape the office to his own needs and concerns:
Termed-out City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo in recent years has arranged for all of his top aides to receive civil service-like tenure protections, meaning they have seniority rights and can only be dismissed for cause. Senior aides are planning to stay when Delgadillo leaves, including the lawyer who now heads his staff, his communications director and his top personnel and budget advisor......
Trutanich last week complained that his transition is being made more difficult by a lack of vacancies at the top of the office and the budget crisis. His transition team is working with city officials to try to find cash to pay for appointments that Trutanich is legally authorized to make.
Local blogger and former Daily News editor Ron Kaye is also cautiously optimistic about our new city attorney. But Mayor Sam's blog is a little concerned about the City Council allowing Trutanich to accept gifts from the public to help pay for his transition.
For a full list of Trut's transition team, see this detailed post about their first meeting from the blog of his former opponent, city attorney candidate Peter Berger. Berger loves what he sees:
All team members were given a 72-page "Blueprint for Change" to guide them towards the goals. Each working group will produce a ten-page memo that will; Assess the current practices, Recommend actions for the first 100 days, first year, and long term. Other recommendations sought include any emergency actions, reorganization of programs, sources of revenue and cost savings as well as opportunities for pro bono assistance from the legal community.
The image associated with this post was taken by Flickr user 888bailbond.com. It was used under user Creative Commons license.
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Huh? Who? Brian, you know very well that we can only remember one thing at a time. How many elections ago was this, anyway? There are so many votes in CA I already forgot about this. I have election fatigue.