Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has made a name for himself during his first year in office through an outspoken, no-nonsense approach, and said it sometimes takes “stepping on toes” to get things done.

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich said he will continue to aggressively pursue people who violate the law in Los Angeles. (photo by Edwin Folven)

Part of the approach includes continuing his aggressive position against illegal billboards. He said he received a lot of criticism earlier this year when he secured an arrest warrant and a $1 million bail for businessman Kayvan Seterah, the owner of a building at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, who allowed an illegal supergraphic to be placed on its façade. Trutanich asked for the high bail amount in the interest of public safety, and to send a message to other property owners who allow supergraphics to be placed on their buildings: if they do not comply with the law, they will be put in jail.

“I asked for that bail because of what he had done in the past and the risk he was creating today. We arrested that guy on a Friday night because he finished putting up the supergraphic on Friday morning, and I wasn’t going to let that guy go one day without being in jail.”

The bail for the Seterah was eventually reduced to $100,000 after he agreed to take the supergraphic down. Trutanich said his approach worked, and added that approximately 750 additional supergraphics have since been taken down by building owners throughout the city.

“Once people know we are going in this direction, that we are not fooling around anymore, they start to take action,” Trutanich said. “The citizens of Los Angeles have a right not to live in a place that is blighted, not by illegal billboards not by supergraphics, and not by illegal marijuana stores.”

Trutanich said that creating the city’s medical marijuana ordinance was another significant accomplishment made during his first year in office. He said it was a difficult task, given the many differing viewpoints on allowing access to medical marijuana, but added that the ordinance in place now follows the state law, which stipulates that selling marijuana is illegal, whether it’s the medical variety or not.

“The Compassionate Use Act was passed in 1996, and during those fourteen years, the city never adopted a policy or ordinance to deal with the distribution of medical marijuana. It created a gaping hole in the system, and as a result we had one thousand [dispensaries]. The city did not have the will or the strength during that period to take the lead and do what was necessary to regulate this,” Trutanich said. “We created an ordinance that took charge of the issue so we could start enforcing the law. We had to put the genie back in the bottle. It created a lot of political ill will and unrest, but the bottom line is, we are a nation of laws, and I plan to enforce the law.”

Trutanich said a majority of the illegal medical marijuana shops closed after the ordinance took effect in June, but his staff is currently compiling a list of dispensaries that have not closed. He issued a warning to the owners of those dispensaries saying he plans to crack down on them in the near future.

“I plan on making sure those marijuana places abide by the law,” Trutanich added. “As long as they abide by the law, they will have no problem with the city attorney. But those who have reopened thinking they can illegally reap profits by suing the city as a way to breach the ordinance have sadly misjudged the resolve of this city.”

During the coming year, Trutanich said he plans to focus on higher consumer protection standards. He said his office is working on a variety of lawsuits that he cannot discuss at this time because of the pending litigation, but added, “You are going to see things come out of this office that you never would have thought of.”

One of the biggest challenges, Trutanich said, is accomplishing all that is required of the city’s top legal representative in an era of shrinking budgets and dwindling staff numbers. Trutanich said one of the things he is most proud of is eliminating an $18 million budget deficit he inherited from former city Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, and actually coming in over budget for the current fiscal year that began on July 1. He said the key to success has been proper management, and now that the office is operating in the black, he is formulating plans to get even more aggressive in cracking down on violators and collecting the millions of dollars in debts owed to the city.

“This is a law office, not a political office,” Trutanich said. “Last year we were $18 million overdrawn the day we took office, and this year we had a $300,000 surplus. We did it by running a tight ship, and we didn’t spend any money. We were frugal, we didn’t hire anybody, we had attrition and furloughs. We got within $3.5 million of our goal [of balancing the budget], and we went out and sued law violators and we collected. By June 30, we ended up with a surplus.”

Trutanich said he plans to continue that cost-saving approach, and credited his staff of approximately 550 attorneys and 1,000 support staff for making it happen. He added that while he may have upset some people along the way, he believes it was necessary to put the City Attorney’s Office in a position to operate effectively.

As far as protecting the city from liability, Trutanich said he will continue to defend against individual claims, and plans to address the millions of dollars the city pays out each year in worker’s compensation costs. He said he is also looking at innovative ways to expand the City Attorney’s Office within the confines of its $85 million budget. One way to do more with less is by offering six-month unpaid internships in a reserve program to attorneys who are just out of law school, which bolsters the City Attorney’s Office’s staff while giving the attorneys real-world experience. He said there are currently approximately 50 attorneys working without pay under the program.

Trutanich also said the office is working to become more efficient by constantly providing more training for its staff. Trutanich has created a “judicial university” within his office where legal experts provide training to other staff members.

“We still file twenty thousand cases a year, not to mention defending against the two thousand cases we have going right now,” Trutanich added. “I am going to keep my eye on the ball and keep moving forward. My plan is to make this office the best municipal law office in the nation.”