Proposal that would have expanded Carmen Trutanich's powers fails to win support in key Assembly committee, with the chairman shunning involvement in an L.A. 'internecine battle.'
Reporting from Sacramento —
A political feud between Los Angeles city officials has helped sink a proposal to vastly expand the powers of the city attorney by giving him his own grand jury.
Legislation by state Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) appears to have died for the year after failing to win support from a key committee in the Assembly. The panel's approval is necessary by Friday, and the committee is not scheduled to meet again.
The measure was proposed by Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich to help him investigate significant misdemeanor cases, but it had been bitterly opposed by some members of the L.A. City Council as an illegal power grab. It failed to get the necessary votes in the Assembly Public Safety Committee. The panel's chairman, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D- San Francisco), objected that he was being asked to jump into an "internecine battle" going on in Los Angeles.
"I just thought it was inappropriate to bring to the Legislature," Ammiano said Wednesday, the day after the committee action. "I don't want to play in somebody else's backyard."
He said the bill, SB 1168 had practical problems, including that such a grand jury could help investigations but not return misdemeanor criminal charges.
"It was not a viable way to do this,'' Ammiano said.
patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com
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