Weiss and Trutanich find some common ground
In the race to replace Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo, who is being forced out by term limits, private attorney Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich is running against Westside City Councilman Jack Weiss.
Both men have pledged to improve morale in the office of more than 500 lawyers, which prosecutes misdemeanors and advises the mayor and City Council.
Weiss has said he would expand gang injunctions, aggressively enforce gun laws and step up enforcement of environmental crimes. Trutanich has promised to create an “Academy of Justice” to better train lawyers, to reduce the millions of dollars in spending on outside counsel and to conduct a thorough review of the effectiveness of gang injunctions and gang-reduction programs.
For months, Trutanich and Weiss have sparred over whose legal experience is more pertinent to the role of city attorney.
Weiss, who worked for six years as a federal prosecutor before he was elected to represent the 5th Council District in June 2001, has taken issue with Trutanich’s clients, which include a number of companies accused of environmental crimes, and demanded that he disclose all of them.
Trutanich, a former deputy district attorney who prosecuted gang and environmental crimes in the 1980s before entering private practice, has tried to paint Weiss as a “legal novice” beholden to developers. Trutanich has also highlighted Weiss’ absences from council chambers and complaints from constituents.
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