Trutanich ContractGate Scandal Fallout - Oath Picture Trashed - Dragnet Goes Rogue

Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen the Clown Trutanich is probably feeling like his political enemies are gaining the upper hand in the wake of the ContractGate scandal revealed by FishBowl LA, the TRU is False blog says that it appears that the contract search tool was not the only item removed from the City Attorney Website. Worse yet, the Los Angeles Dragnet, a longtime sycophantic supporter, appears to be going rogue.

(Credit: Los Angeles Dragnet)

 The LA Dragnet published this hilarious cartoon depiction of the wheels coming off the Trutanich bandwagon, in reference to the slew of negative comments at Ron Kaye L.A. at the prospect of spending an hour with Trutanich. It seems the Dragnet is done with Trutanich.

But even as the ink was drying on that story, and the ContractGate scandal threatened to focus attention on the reasons why Trutanich's staff hobbled the searchability of the City Attorney website, the TRU is False blog revealed that City Attorney Trutanich had removed a photograph of him swearing the oath of office from the City Attorney's website. 

(Credit: TRU is False)

TRU is False speculates that the reason for the removal of the photo might be to prevent it being used by his rivals to cast doubt on how seriously Trutanich takes his own words. Trutanich recently told Jack Leonard at the LA Times that he did not consider himself bound by his sworn solemn campaign promise not to run for Los Angeles District Attorney.

All indications point to Trutanich joining the race to replace Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley with an announcement sometime after the current crop of candidates reveal their latest fundraising figures. Currently five members of the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office are running to replace Cooley; Democrats Jackie Lacey, Danette Meyers, Mario Trujillo and Robert "Bobby" Grace, and the sole Republican, Alan Jackson.

Trutanich, a 'decline to state Republican,' will face a tough time from his all his opponents as there is so much to dislike about the man who his either called a 'thug' or a 'clown' depending on which particular foot is in his mouth.

It is rumored that Trutanich will bow out of a run for re-election as City Attorney in 2013 in the face of a challenge by California Assembleyman Mike Feuer. Feuer, a well respected Democrat with long and well-rooted ties to LA's wealthy westside community who would most likely flock to fund his campaign. Feuer served as a councilmember to the westside before running for City Attorney in 2001. Ominously for Trutanich, Feuer was narrowly beaten by Rocky Delgadillo for the City's Top Cop slot, but held on to a powerful base of supporters.

Few believe that Trutanich has any chance in a race against Feuer, who will be termed out of the Assembly in 2012 with more than enough momentum, name-recognition and fund raising power to demolish Trutanich, who can no longer count on Steve Cooley's rolodex to be available to him.

Trutanich's popularity in his own office is likely to be significantly below the depths reached by Rocky Delgadillo, as many believe Trutanich's foolhardy allegation of 'criminal aspects' regarding AEG's handling of the Michael Jackson memorial, and his wild threats to arrest Councilmember Jan Perry over the AEG billboards issue, destroyed the credibility of the Office.

Trutanich, however, may believe he has an "ACE" up his sleeve, with a ordinance on the books that will restore his flagging fortunes. The Trutanich ACE Program, if passed, will give Trutanich the power to appoint his own judges to hear cases he would otherwise have to prosecute in criminal courts. It would also give him control over the fine monies collected and enable him to use those fines to pay his office costs. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, the ACE Program will give Trutanich Grand Jury-like subpoena powers to investigate those he believes have something to hide.

If the City Council passes Trutanich's ACE Program, they will effectively be appointing the wolf as gatekeeper of the hen house. Let's hope the Council decides to amend Trutanich's ACE Program and give control to an independent body like the City Ethics Commission. That might at least make the ACE Program constitutional, unlike Trutanich's recent medical marijuana ordinance.

The City Councilmembers are unlikely to be convinced by Trutanich's assertions that his ACE program is constitutional once they realize the potential violation of Separation of Powers and Conflict of Interest that Trutanich's ACE poses. Trutanich had the ACE Program written to put himself in control of the selection of judges, instructing his judges on how to apply the law, and then collecting and spending the fine monies his judges extract from Los Angelenos.

Trutanich's own grasp of the meaning of Separation of Powers came under fire recently when Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr told the City Attorney that responding to his "request for guidance would violate the separation of powers between the judicial and legislative branches." according to the LA Times.

Let's hope the City Council does the right thing with Trutanich's ACE.

An Hour With Carmen Trutanich? I'd Rather Be Water Boarded!

Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich's popularity plumbed lower depths over the weekend, probably the unexpected result of a puff piece on the Ron Kaye L.A. Blog.

Ron Kaye, the former editor of the LA Daily News probably thought the idea of spending an hour listening to Carmen Trutanich "Defending, Attacking, Answering Tough Questions" would appeal to his readership, most of whom supported the San Pedro criminal defender political outsider. But instead of a few comments commending Trutanich's self-proclaimed achievements, there was an overwhelming number of negative comments.

It seems that Trutanich was a guest speaker at the Sherman Oaks Homeowner's Association and the entire one-hour diatribe was captured on video. It's bad enough having to listen to the confusing, rambling and contorted legal theories of Trutanich in person, but the idea of listening to the City Attorney currently known as Carmen the Clown on YouTube for an hour may well seem like cruel and unusual punishment to some.

Here are a few of the comments on Ron Kaye LA (you can use this link to see them all, and watch the video if you want an aneurism)

"... everything about this guy stinks. I hope Mike Feuer beats him badly in 2013. I'm backing Feuer."

"An hour with Trutanich? I wouldn't waste 5 minutes of my time on him."

"Not a bigger FAILURE for the taxpayers and DWP rate payers exists in L.A. Than Carmen "Gaga" Trutanich! He sold out so he can run for D.A. and get all those FREE "gifts" that the corruption provides."

"I had a meeting with him and some other people from our group. The meeting was set for 2pm at his office. We were kept waiting for over an hour, and when Nuch finally saw us, he was distracted and didn't seem to care. He said he was "very busy" as if our problem wasn't important enough to get his attention. Throughout the meeting he took phone calls and shouted orders at his secretary. He never answered our questions directly, instead giving really confusing answers that seemed to be about other topics."

"Ron, I cannot bear to watch that clown try to talk his way out of the huge disappointment he's turned out to be."

"The ACE program is a power grab to keep City Attorneys fully employed where the poor and weak will be bullied with fines."

"Time and time again he's reneged on promises, the most significant one being that he would not use the CA's Office as a political springboard to higher office until he had served a full first term, and sought a second. That was a signed sworn promise 'as serious as a heart attack' as he used to say."

If the honeymoon was over after the embarrassing revelation that Trutanich had accepted a donation of Lady Gaga tickets from AEG after dropping his 'criminal aspects' investigation of AEG's handling of the Michael Jackson memorial, then this looks like the pre-nup is being challenged as divorce beckons.

But it's not just the voters who have become disenchanted with Trutanich. Perhaps his own staffers are wondering why they have to bear the brunt of cutbacks, work furloughs, and ridicule, while Trutanich has steadfastly refused to voluntarily take the same pay cut as his staff, and continues to be the source of humiliation.

Last week's Fishbowl LA hit-piece that is sparking a ContractGate scandal over the removal of a search tool from Trutanich's website probably has people inside and outside wondering why Trutanich

Still, perhaps there is hope for Trutanich yet. He could have unintentionally discovered a new interrogation technique for LAPD - they can now threaten suspects by making them watch "an hour with Carmen Trutanich" until they confess. I bet even the most hardened criminal won't last ten minutes!