An Easy, Green Choice for Los Angeles City Attorney

If the City of Los Angeles is ever going to become one of the nation's greenest cities, the city's top lawyer must be a big part of leading the charge to clean up our rivers and coastline, fight environmental injustice and demand environmental accountability from polluters.

As a City Council member, Jack Weiss has a record overall on the environment that is excellent based on any measure. Moreover, in contrast to his opponent's career focus on defending those accused of environmental crimes, this record is even more notable. That's why environmental attorneys in Los Angeles like David Beckman and me support Jack Weiss.

We know from nearly a decade of personal experience that Jack was willing to go up against the city bureaucracy to change its environmental policies even when there was no upside for him and his labors were largely invisible to the press and the public. This willingness to support the environment without glory -- to do the hard work in the trenches -- is the truest test of a candidate's environmental bona fides. Jack passes this test with flying colors.

Jack Weiss was the first member of the Los Angeles City Council to support settlement of the landmark sewage litigation in Santa Monica Baykeeper v. City of Los Angeles. Mr. Weiss spoke up when it was not popular and when many others on the council leveled harsh criticism against the environmental community. Mr. Weiss's stalwart efforts eventually helped the parties reach a settlement agreement in what the U.S. Department of Justice calls "one of the largest sewage cases in U.S. history." The city's efforts under the settlement have resulted in a 71% reduction in sewage spills. Councilmember Weiss also led the City Council's efforts to resolve disputes about cleaning up the Los Angeles River and Ballona Creek as well as strengthening the Los Angeles Municipal Stormwater permit. Were it not for the efforts of Jack Weiss, the City of Los Angeles might still be fighting cleanup and wasting millions in taxpayer dollars while doing so.

Since then, Mr. Weiss's record of strong environmental protection has continued. He has served as the founding chair of the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission and is the current President of the Santa Monica Bay Watershed Council. He also has crafted a strong environmental plan and won the endorsement of prominent environmentalists such as Ed Begley Jr., Senator Barbara Boxer and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Meanwhile, Carmen Trutanich has not worked on the side of the environment for over 20 years. As lawyers ourselves, we would never suggest that a lawyer is an environmental criminal because he decides to spend the majority of his professional efforts defending those accused of environmental offenses. Defense attorneys play an important role in the judicial system. But Mr. Trutanich seeks a political post where the public is entitled to, and should, consider a wider range of factors. In the real world, a person's work and the law practice he labored to build fairly provides insight into his orientation and experience.

Perhaps there are those that could spend twenty years defending those accused of environmental crimes and then switch sides without missing a beat. But that does not appear to be the case with Mr. Trutanich. The way Mr. Trutanich's law practice and the actions of some of his clients have bled into his own personal perspectives are made clear in his campaign literature. One need look no further than Mr. Trutanich's website for confirmation of the lax attitude toward enforcement he would be likely to take if elected. That website prominently promises that when it comes to environmental enforcement Mr. Trutanich is interested in "compliance" and not "fees." This is Orwellian code language we frequently see in environmental circles. Translated it means that if you get caught polluting, Mr. Trutanich won't punish you, he will just make you clean up your act. In reality, this posture serves as the largest disincentive to compliance imaginable because it creates no incentive to protect the environment in the first place, since if you don't and get caught you will suffer no penalty. Mr. Trutanich's website is where he informs the public of his views; it is unfiltered; has nothing to do with his clients; it is Mr. Trutanich speaking for himself.

Contradicting his own website, Mr. Trutanich continues to claim he'll be tough on polluters if elected. As a defense attorney, however, Mr. Trutanich has shown otherwise, not only defending some of the area's worst violators, but going so far as to assert that the City of Los Angeles does not have legal standing to pursue polluters in court. Whether that absurd claim reflects his own personal view or not, where Mr. Trutanich does pursue environmental enforcement, it certainly will be an interesting legal dance for him to explain his new cases when confronted with the very same defenses he raised only months earlier as a private attorney.

In an election, your record matters. Whatever the ultimate meaning of Mr. Trutanich's lifetime of environmental defense work, his record certainly pales compared to Mr. Weiss' on the environment. Given a choice between a pro-environment sure thing and someone who can point to nothing in the last two decades of his life remotely comparable, the choice in our view is an easy one for anyone who cares about the environment in Los Angeles.

David S. Beckman, a senior environmental attorney in Los Angeles, co-authored this post. The views expressed herein are the personal views of the authors.

Comments

[luzerius]

"Greg Fuentes" trolls the blogs to post Trutanich talking points that are either false or wildly distorted - like losing CA candidate David Berger aka Rumpole, and "Phred". They're shills.

Fleischli and Beckman are spot on here. Unfortunately this election comes as the L A Times has become an organ of Fox News and, along with the "new" right-skewing L A Weekly, have skewed this election to the Republican right which backs Trutanich --while trying to spin him as a moderate. He's an opportunis­t/chameleo­n, saying anything to anyone to get endorsed). He's run as an "environmental attorney"/gang prosecutor which he hasn't been in decades.

When confronted by U C Irvine Law School Dean/respected scholar Erwin Chemerinsky with misinterpreting and inventing legal code to justify stonewalling his client list, he's retorted in essence "I'm smarter than him and all those other experts!" showing he's wildly in over his head unlike Weiss, who can use the bully pulpit on behalf of issues: environment, gangs, anti-terrorism, eliminating the DNA rape evidence kit backlog, etc. -- where Weiss has an exemplary track record.

Trutanich's campaign just attacks Weiss with "I'd have done better -- IF I'd bothered to lift a finger in that direction instead of just lining my pockets to do the opposite." He's a demagogue, preying on public skepticism about government, run a nasty campaign to try to "put Weiss on trial" to deflect from his own record. It would be a tragedy if this man won!

[Greg Fuentes]

For a person running for the City Attorney position, Weiss and/or his campaigns have displayed a troubling lack of respect for applicable laws. When Weiss ran for the District 5 Councilmember position in 2001, his campaign received thousands of dollars in laundered campaign funds from Casden Properties. Eight years later, Weiss has yet to reimburse the City or any other governmental entity with respect to these illegal contributions. For other violations in his 2001 City Council campaign, Weiss’s campaign was fined thousands of dollars by the City’s Ethics Commission.

Within the past month, Weiss participated in a fundraiser that violated City ethical provisions that were adopted by the City Council while Weiss was a councilmember. Only after the Los Angeles Times inquiried into this matter, did the Weiss campaign agree to return the funds–allegedly around $20,000–Weiss collected at this fundraiser–cohosted by Kelly Candaele. Candaele later resigned as a City pension board member after the Times raised questions.

Even more recently, the Los Angeles broadcast television station, Channel 11, reported that Weiss chose to attend a fundraiser hosted by convicted felon who had engaged in massive amounts of fraud. Although going to felons for campaign funds may not constitute a violation, some might find it questionable for a City Attorney candidate to do so. Also troubling regarding this felon campaign solicitation matter is that, when Weiss was questioned on camera, he made a statement later contradicted by his own campaign, according to Channel 11.

[Greg Fuentes]

Jack Weiss talks a good game on the environment, just like he talks a good game on many issues. However, Weiss’ followup on his talk often leaves much to be desired, as many of his Council District Five constituents for the past seven-plus years will tell you.

Jack Weiss has been talking a good game regarding the disgraceful rape kit backlog at the Los Angeles Police Department.

However, although Weiss has been a member of the Los Angeles City Council since 2001, an October 2008 audit of the Los Angeles city crime lab revealed that the number of untested rape kits continued to grow in the years 2004 to 2008 despite nearly $4 million in federal grant money made available for DNA backlog reduction during the same period. Human Rights Watch's own review of federal DNA funding grant reports revealed that as of December 2007 the Police Department had not yet used all funds it had been awarded in 2004, and had used none of the available money from 2005 to 2007.

Trutanich apparently represents his clients well and is highly regarded by many fellow attorneys.

Weiss has represented neither his Fifth District nor the City in general in an acceptable manner. The Weiss’ ads I have seen do not discuss any significant, cost-effective accomplishments by Weiss during his seven-plus years as a City Councilperson.

What would change if Weiss were to be given the opportunity to mismanage the City Attorney's office?