Re “Trutanich Lawsuit Calls Feuer ‘Morally Unfit’ to be City Attorney”
[Editor’s Note: The flame of bitterness between incumbent Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich and challenger Mike Feuer – who handily won the arch 5 primary – is heating up by the hour, less than two months before the May 21 runoff. The recent Trutanich ethics complaint against Mr. Feuer now is followed by a Feuer ethics complaint against Mr. Trutanich.]
[img]1610|left|Mr. Mike Feuer||no_popup[/img]The Mike Feuer for City Attorney campaign today is filing an official complaint with the Los Angeles Ethics Commission, calling for an investigation of Mr. Trutanich’s use of official email communications within the city’s blackout period – which prohibits mass communications from elected officials or employees running for public office – and to intervene to prevent future violations.
According to correspondence sent to every elected official in the City of Los Angeles from the Los Angeles City Clerk on Sept. 5, 2012, mass mailing communications (including emails) from an officeholder are prohibited, as outlined by Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) Section 49.63, during the prohibition period when municipal elections are approaching.
The prohibition or blackout period begins once an employee or an officer files his or her Declaration of Intention to Become a Candidate (Nov. 5 through 10, 2012). It continues until the date of the last election in that election cycle for which the officer’s or employee’s name appears on the ballot.
[img]1697|right|Mr. Carmen Trutanich||no_popup[/img]As outlined in the attached complaint (see below), Mr. Trutanich has sent multiple emails from his official City Attorney account to an undisclosed number of recipients, which the Feuer campaign believes is well beyond the 200-item limit imposed during the blackout period.
The Feuer campaign is requesting that the Ethics Commission immediately investigate the email communications that have been sent to determine whether Mr. Trutanich has violated any city laws and intervene to prevent future violations.
“It's alarming that the incumbent City Attorney thinks he’s above the law when it comes to using taxpayer resources to promote himself in the midst of a campaign,” said Dave Jacobson, Feuer campaign spokesperson. “This just goes to show how desperate Mr. Trutanich is. The City Attorney, of all people, should play by the rules.”
To view the Feuer campaign’s formal request for Ethics Commission investigation, please see the following attachment.
For further information about the Feuer for City Attorney campaign, see http://votemikefeuer.com/
March 29, 2013
Neama Rahmani
Director of Enforcement
Los Angeles City Ethics Commission
200 N. Spring Street
City Hall, 24th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Re: Complaint regarding alleged violations of City campaign laws by The City Attorney’s Office
Dear Mr. Rahmani:
The purpose of this letter is to request that you immediately investigate the following alleged violations of City campaign laws by The Los Angeles City Attorney and intervene now to prevent future violations.
The Trutanich campaign has benefitted from the apparent misuse of public resources for campaign purposes because the “Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, Carmen Trutanich City Attorney” has been circulating “weekly” newsletters by email during the City Mass Mailing Prohibition Period.
Attached are four examples of apparently weekly newsletters sent by email touting the purported accomplishments of Mr. Trutanich and his office. These newsletters, dated February 1, 2013, February 8, 2013, March 8, 2013 and March 15, 2013, are attached hereto as Exhibits A, B,C and D. The newsletters were received by, among others, a member of a neighborhood council–strongly indicating that the pool of recipients significantly exceeds the 200 item limit imposed by City rules.
These newsletters appear to violate the restrictions of the City Mass Mailing Prohibition Period, set forth in Inter-Departmental Correspondence dated September 5, 2012, and LAMC Section 49.63. The Inter-Departmental Correspondence is attached hereto as Exhibit E.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Alex Ponder
Campaign Manager
