Trutanich's Turbid Ties to Lobbyist Surface In LA Weekly Report

The LA Weekly mentions City Attorney Carmen 'the Clown' Trutanich no less than 11 times in it's article "How Lobbyist John Ek Gets His Way at City Hall," published on April 21, 2011.

But Trutanich isn't mentioned as taking an "aggressive stance" against lobbyist John Ek's efforts to allow his client, HMS Host, to hold on to its concessions at Los Angeles Airport where LA Weekly says HMS Host has given LAX a reputation for "lousy food."

Few would disagree that food concessions at LAX are 'lousy,' add 'expensive' and 'surly' to a long list of complaints about HMS Host too.

But far from defending traveller's rights, Trutanich seems to be on the side of Ek's client here, and LA Weekly unveils a long and tangled series of dealings between Trutanich and Ek which might explain why Trutanich was so willing to take sides with Ek and HMS Host.

LA Weekly reveals that both Trutanich and Ek are part of San Pedro's power-broker community. No real surprise then, that during Mayor Jim Hahn's administration, Ek's lobbying activities came under investigation when, according to Gene Maddaus at the LA Weekly, one of Ek's airport clients, URS, "complained to investigators that he had urged them to donate to Hahn's anti-secession campaign. This was supposedly done at the behest of Hahn's appointee to the Airport Commission, and Ek allegedly warned of the consequences of not contributing." Maddaus said.

Maddaus reports that Ek denied the pay-to-play allegation, but was nevertheless "called as a witness before the grand jury, and sought counsel from a well-known local defense attorney — Carmen Trutanich, now L.A. city attorney. Ek was never charged." Said Maddaus.

Trutanich's ties to Ek did not end there. Two weeks before Trutanich launched his bid for City Attorney, he had a small dinner at Trani's Ristorante to discuss the campaign. Trutanich's two guests were Janice Hahn and John Ek. Since becoming City Attorney, Trutanich and Ek have continued their association. Recently, at the Dalmation-American Club fish luncheon, another of Trutanich's regular haunts, "Ek greeted Trutanich with a bear hug." Maddaus said.

So when the thorny question of whether the Airport commission should evict HMS Host, (Host placed last of four bidders for the lucrative LAX concession contract), Trutanich came to Ek and HMS Host's rescue; he declared that there was a conflict of interest.

No, not the conflict of interest that you might expect - that Trutanich and Ek enjoy a close relationship, but rather that the LAX commission president, Alan Rothenberg, had a conflict of interest;  he is on the board of California Pizza Kitchen, and CPK is part of Host's concessionaires. But rather than simply require Rothenberg to recuse himself, and let the Airport commission hear HMS Host's appeal, according to Maddaus "Trutanich decided to disqualify the entire commission. That decision changed the entire process, sending the appeal into a different arena, one more solicitous to Host. The appeal went to the council's Board of Referred Powers, an obscure panel chaired by Cardenas and featuring Hahn as a member."

The result of Trutanich's decision has been to delay the removal of HMS Host and prolong the agony of travelers; earning HMS Host far more than Ek's fees.

But wait, there's more. According to Maddaus, one of Trutanich's deputies "Kelly Martin, the city attorney assigned to LAX, wrote a response that strongly defended the airport" from accusations by HMS Host that "the bidding process was flawed and should be thrown out." In a surprise move, Trutanich re-assigned Martin to other duties, doubtless much to the relief of Ek and HMS Host.

Of course, Trutanich's decision to remove Martin probably has an explanation that might pass the straight-face test, but then again, Trutanich also has a reputation for re-assigning his deputies for questionable reasons, as in the case of deputy city attorney Tom Griego, who Trutanich transferred to the criminal division in order that Griego could call himself a "criminal prosecutor" in his bid to fool voters into electing him as a Superior Court Judge.

Trutanich's dealings with Ek must surely make some wonder who the "people's lawyer" is really working for.

TRU LIES - When is a "Criminal Prosecutor" NOT?

Short Answer: When Carmen "The Clown" Trutanich has anything to do with it.

Satirical parody of a "fixer"

 Rumors now point to Los Angeles City Attorney, Carmen "The Clown" Trutanich, as being at the center of a cynical conspiracy to mislead voters into voting for an unqualified candidate.

In November's mid term elections voters faced with choices about unknown candidates usually voted according to party affiliation. But with important "non partisan" races, such as those for Superior Court Judges, voters often have nothing to go on but the candidates' name and ballot designation; three words that are supposed to inform voters about a candidate's occupation.

In the race for Judicial Office Number 117, voters were faced with a choice between  Alan Schneider, a "Gang Homicide Prosecutor" and Tom Griego, a "Criminal Prosecutor." A hard choice as both candidates appear to do the things that voters approve of - putting bad guys in jail.

But in the case of Tom Griego, voters could not have known that according to the Metropolitan News Enterprise, the closest Griego ever got to putting anyone in jail for the past 10 years, was sitting at a desk reading a manual about crime. So how was it that Griego was able to obtain what the Met News called a "misleading" ballot designation?

The answer appears to be that Trutanich manipulated things so that Griego could fool voters who knew nothing about him. Griego, a civil lawyer in the City Attorney's office, requested a transfer to the criminal division for the sole purpose of being able to call himself a "Criminal Prosecutor," when the truth was that he was nothing of the sort.

Trutanich surprisingly agreed to the transfer even though at the same time he was telling everyone that the budget crisis meant he needed as many lawyers as possible to transfer to the civil division because the Airport, Port and DWP pay for legal services. So, the only reason for Trutanich to transfer Griego out of civil must been to "make it happen" and aid and abet voter deception.

Maybe Trutanich thought a little deception is not such a bad thing, after all, he called himself an "Environmental Lawyer" because he defended environmental criminals. But in the case of Griego, Trutanich not only allowed this deception to be conducted in his name (Trutanich endorsed Griego) but he also kept back one important fact about Griego's ability to be a judge. The Los Angeles County Bar Association routinely assesses the qualifications of those who seek to become judges. In the case of Griego's opponent LACBA rated Alan Schneider as "Well Qualified." But Griego? LACBA rated Griego "Not Qualified." Nevertheless, Trutanich thought it was 'OK' to try to sick an unqualified candidate on the electorate, all nicely dressed up with an endorsement and an attractive ballot designation.

Many will find Trutanich's central role in this conspiracy to con the public deeply disturbing. Trutanich campaigned on "Honesty" and "Openness" and "Transparency," and should have been the one person you would expect to do everything in his power to prevent this obfuscation of justice. But that's all part of Tutanich's facade, and it's disgusting.

Other blogs  raised questions about Tom Griego, but TRU is False tells you the rest of the story.

Carmen The Clown Kills The Neighborhood Prosecutor Program

On Sunday November 7, 2010, the Los Angeles Daily News reported that Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen "The Clown" Trutanich had gone back on yet another promise and had effectively shut down the Neighborhood Prosecutor Program.

According to the report, Trutanich did not comment directly, but instead hid behind the statements of a chief deputy who blamed the budget cuts for the need to trim down the program to the point where most believe that it will cease to exist. The NPP was started by Trutanich's predecessor, Rocky Delgadillo, and has earned praise as well as the admiration of blighted communities for the way it finds innovative and non-conventional solutions.

According to the Daily News "From 2002 through April of this year, neighborhood prosecutors at 19 police stations attended more than 27,000 community meetings, handled more than 20,000 complaints and prosecuted nearly 9,000 criminal cases, with a conviction rate of nearly 90 percent." That's an impressive success rate, and that's likely the problem; it's Delgadillo's success, not Trutanich's.

Trutanich, who many accuse of being a bully, control freak and an egoist, may have become increasingly upset when he found that his Neighborhood Prosecutors had developed strong bonds with the communities they served. Bonds that were, perhaps, stronger than his own.

It was an open secret that Trutanich resented the fact that many of the Neighborhood Prosecutors were active politically in their spare time. Perhaps if they had been active Republicans Trutanich wouldn't have had a problem with them or the Neighborhood Prosecutor Program. But, of course, they were all Democrats, so perhaps Trutanich cut them off and closed down the program so that he couldn't be accused of bias.

And while Trutanich hides behind one of his chief deputies, and uses the budget as "cover" to kill off political opponents and a valuable program, his cover may get a little thin when questions start to be asked about how his budget was able to stretch to allow Tom Griego, a highly paid civil lawyer in his office, to be transferred to the criminal division just so Griego could call himself a "Criminal Prosecutor" in a run to become a judge. According to the Metropolitan News Enterprise, apparently all Griego did in the criminal division was "read manuals" about crime while drawing a high City salary.

Maybe that 'budget' cover wasn't such a good idea. Remember, we're here to show you what is, and what is not TRU.