Freeze or Not, Delgadillo Finds A Way to Hire more Attorneys
Politics by Howard Fine
By HOWARD FINE and AMANDA BRONSTAD
Staff Reporters
Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo wants City Council and Mayor James Hahn to lift the city’s seven-month-old hiring freeze so he can stock his department with more attorneys.
Delgadillo has circumvented the freeze, hiring 57 attorneys by requesting exemptions. He has requested funding for six additional positions for this fiscal year, which began July 1. “Whenever we find remarkable talent, we find a way to bring them on board, hiring freeze or not,” Delgadillo said.
Of the 57 attorneys hired last year, 29 filled new positions in the office. The balance filled existing positions.
The request has the support of Councilman Nick Pacheco, chairman of the budget and finance committee, who said he plans to introduce a motion during the next few weeks eliminating the hiring freeze for both the City Attorney and City Controller.
“We’re trying to create a mechanism to maintain our service levels while at the same time being fiscally conservative,” Pacheco said.
Calls to Hahn’s office for comment were not returned.
Last winter, Delgadillo was criticized for requesting $7 million in additional funding about $1 million to hire 20 additional staff while the city tightened its budget.
This year’s city budget looks healthier. The city avoided a projected $180 million budget deficit, ending fiscal 2002 with a $94 million surplus, said Bill Fujioka, city administrative officer.
Further, the City Attorney’s office saw a 5.2 percent increase in budget allocations, one of the highest increases in the city, Fujioka said. The City Attorney’s budget for fiscal 2003 is $80.5 million, up from $76.5 million last year, he said.
Still, Fujioka said the city wasn’t prepared to lift the hiring freeze, which began in November 2001.
“There are two critical issues that are still unknowns,” Fujioka said. “One is the impact of the state budget. We’re concerned that the state, to balance the budget, will reduce funding. Second is secession, which would have significant financial consequence on the city. So we’re taking a very careful, prudent approach.”
Must-See TV
Coming to your TV set starting this week: Secession 101. It’s a 17-episode primer on many of the key issues surrounding the secession debate.
The weekly half-hour shows will air through October on Channel 36, also known as the L.A. Channel, every Sunday at 11:30 a.m., repeating at 9 p.m. and again on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. They are being sponsored by the Civic Forum, the non-partisan, neutral group formed this spring to provide information and discussion sessions on the secession issue.
The aim of the Civic Forum series is to give a non-biased look at the complex issues surrounding secession.
“This is part of our effort to provide a third voice for the secession debate, an entity that won’t take a position on the issue,” said Ken Bernstein, chair of the Civic Forum and director of preservation issues for the Los Angeles Conservancy. “All you have to do is look at the polarizing role that the two major papers have played and you understand the need for an impartial view.”
Each of the 17 shows will cover a secession-related topic and feature two or three guests discussing that issue. This week’s episode looks at the history of the secession movement. Next week’s show looks in detail at the ballot proposal and the structure of the proposed Valley city and will feature L.A. City Council President Alex Padilla and Valley VOTE Board Member John Walker. Future programs will examine how public safety would be impacted by secession, what happens to water and power supplies and airport-related issues.
Bernstein said a TV series would reach more voters than individual discussion sessions of 100 or 200 people. “We’re trying to get the word out as widely as possible,” Bernstein said. “We hope that other news outlets will pick up portions of the series or even the entire thing.”
The series is being funded mostly through in-kind contributions, Bernstein said. For example, USC is donating the use of its Center for Digital Arts as the production studio.
Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached by phone at (323) 549-5225, ext. 227, or by e-mail at
[email protected].
