4 candidates for L.A. city attorney spar at Hollywood forum

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Sharp elbows were the order of the day as the lawyers competing for Los Angeles city attorney stumped for votes—and advantage—at a candidates forum in Hollywood on Monday night.

Held at Temple Israel and co-sponsored by the Hollywood United Methodist Church, the forum aimed to explore how ‘values and ethics inform the job” of city attorney.

It was also the first time all four candidates on the March 5 municipal primary ballot appeared together. And it wasn’t long before they were taking shots at one another or finding themselves on the defensive from questioners.

Mike Feuer, a former city councilman and state assemblyman, and City Atty. Carmen Trutanich, widely perceived as the front-runners, bore most of the criticisms. But private attorney Greg Smith endured some jabs as well. Smith is vying with Feuer and another private attorney, Noel Weiss, to deny Trutanich a second term.

Trutanich and Smith took shots at Feuer for what they saw as a critical lack of courtroom experience. “He’s not tried a case to a jury in his life,” Smith said of the Harvard Law School-educated Feuer, who claims he successfully “litigated” scores of cases when he headed the nonprofit legal aid organization Bet Tzedek. Feuer accused Trutanich of inflating his successes at defending lawsuits against the city.

During a part of the program in which the candidates were allowed to ask questions of one another, Feuer wanted to know why Smith had “endorsed” a “tea party” candidate for mayor. Smith, a Democrat, acknowledged he had donated to the campaign of the only Republican on the mayoral ballot, lawyer and former radio talk-show host Kevin James, but said he had not yet decided on which, if any, candidate to endorse.

City races are nonpartisan.

When asked about the roughly $600,000 of his own money he’s pumped into his campaign, Smith said it was the only way he could get his message to voters. “I’m not a political insider” who can command the level of contributions reached by Feuer and Trutanich, Smith said.

“It’s tough,” agreed Weiss, who raised no money when he ran for city attorney in 2009 and said he hasn’t done so this time either. “The special interests have got it wired.”

Weiss also slammed Feuer for accepting the endorsement of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who Weiss said cut the city attorney’s staff budget for political reasons. Feuer said he was proud to have the backing of the mayor, with whom he had worked over the years on issues they both deemed important.

Trutanich has been repeatedly criticized for breaking a campaign pledge he made in the 2009 city attorney race not to seek another office until he had served two terms at City Hall. But he ran for L.A. County district attorney last year, coming in third and failing to make the runoff. Asked again about the matter on Monday night, Trutanich said, “I made a mistake” in running for the county office.

ALSO:

Abuse led to killing of neo-Nazi father, judge says

Five arrested in Nordstrom Rack takeover robbery, LAPD says

New Natalie Wood death report raises questions about 1981 investigation --Jean Merl