Carmen Trutanich running for County DA

LOS ANGELES—Saying it was now or never, City District Attorney Carmen Trutanich wants to make it abundantly clear why he’s seeking the County District Attorney’s office.

“In doing my job as city attorney of Los Angeles, I realized that in order to keep people safe in the city of Los Angeles I had to have a strong partner in the [LA County] District Attorney’s office,” he told the Asian Journal.

“There’s no one running in this race that I’ve seen that can do that job and do it adequately, to keep the people of not only the city of Los Angeles but the county of Los Angeles safe.”

Trutanich is among six candidates seeking to succeed Steve Cooley (who is retiring this year) as district attorney of Los Angeles county in the June 5 primary.

The others running for the vacant seat are Deputy District Attorneys John L. Breault III and Bobby Grace; Gang Homicide Prosecutor Alan Jackson; Chief Deputy DA Jackie Lacy, and Senior Deputy DA Danette Meyers.

Since Trutanich announced he would run for the county DA, he’s received a fair share of criticism — from reneging on a promise not to seek higher office during his run for city attorney to his use of “Los Angeles Chief Prosecutor” as his ballot designation.

However, Trutanich is taking it all in stride.

He said the people criticizing him are not focusing on the real issues of a being a county DA – crime prevention and public safety.

“They are just wasting money running negative ads against me,” he said. “I’m the most qualified in this race.”

Since taking office as city attorney in 2009, Trutanich has saved the city more than $200 million in civil damages in lawsuits filed against City Departments and has pursued companies owing the city money. City Attorney litigators have collected nearly $6 million in delinquent business taxes, according to the DA’s office.

Trutanich visited and spoke at length with the Asian Journal about why he’s running for District Attorney of Los Angeles County.

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

AJ: Tell us why you have chosen to speak to the Asian Journal?

CT: “It’s important to reach out to all ethnic communities in Los Angeles. There’s 144 languages spoken in Los Angeles and every single one of those communities are important. I am a Croatian-American. It’s important for me to reach out to them. People have to understand we are a great sociological experiment in this city of Los Angeles and County of Los Angeles, there’s so many cultures probably the most diverse in the world and it’s important that we live in harmony. It’s also important for each and every one of those communities to have a voice in electing the person keeping them safe.”

AJ: Why are you running for LA County District Attorney?

CT: It was an important decision to make and it took me a while to make it. I never ran for anything before. The first time I ran for public office was when I ran for city district attorney back in 2009. I left a very substantial practice of law.

In doing my job as city attorney of Los Angeles, I realized that in order to keep people safe in the city of Los Angeles I had to have a strong partner in the [LA county] district attorney’s office. There’s no one running in this race that I’ve seen that can do that job and do it adequately to keep the people of not only the city of Los Angeles but the county of Los Angeles safe.

So I waited almost until close to announce my candidacy, because I was hoping the current DA (Steve Cooley) would stay in office. We’ve partnered very well together and worked very well together. But at the end of the day, he has chosen to retire and this is a vacant office. It hasn’t been vacant since 1976, which is almost four decades ago. So it’s either now or never and in my mind, it’s important that I continue my job of public safety because, not only could I keep the citizens of Los Angeles city safe, but I can also keep the citizens of Los Angeles county safe by implementing the things we’ve done in the city attorney’s office.

AJ: Since making that announcement, people have criticized you. During your campaign for city district attorney you promised you wouldn’t seek higher office until you finished two terms. How do you respond to those critics?

CT: This is all coming from four or five people who are running against me… The four or five people writing these articles or getting the press involved are basically playing against me. You haven’t heard anyone talk about the issues in this campaign. No one is talking about public safety. No one is talking about crime rates, realignment or juvenile crime. No one is talking about child molestation in our schools and no one is talking about prostitution and drugs and gangs. No one. They are talking about ‘he promised.’ Come on.

That was something I said to a challenger when I was running for city attorney to try to get him to bite. It was a ploy. It was a tactic. It was a dumb tactic but you know what it has nothing to do with the race for city attorney. He didn’t bite on it. It didn’t work… At the end of the day I’m going to raise money for LA’s best after school program because it’s the right thing to do and I’m also going to run for LA County district attorney because, you know why? Because it’s the right thing to do. I know I can do the best job because I have the most experience. These guys want to get me out of the game so they can be DA. That’s what they want so they can advance their own career. I’m at the end of this game. I’ve had a long practice in law, almost 32 years. I’m doing this because it’s the right thing to do and I’m doing this because I want to keep the people of this county safe — not advance a career but to do a job like I’ve done in the city attorney’s office.

AJ: One of your opponents, Alan Jackson, filed a lawsuit against you for you using the term Los Angeles Chief Prosecutor. Give us your thoughts on that.

CT: I look forward to him writing a check to me for my attorney’s fees. He’s wasting all his money and my other opponents running negative ads about me. There’s nothing promoting what he’s done and the reason why it’s because it’s a blank sheet of paper.

AJ: What are you most proud of as City Attorney of Los Angeles?

CT: I’m very proud of the office. We have done more with less. We’ve partnered with law enforcement and LAPD. In fact we’ve partnered so well the county sheriff (Lee Baca) is my co-campaign chair. This has been a phenomenal experience for me. I’ve run a law office before but never a governmental office. And I’ve supervised a lot of lawyers before but this is really a great experience. When we took office, our payroll was $4 million greater than my budget they allocated me to spend and by the end of the year, we finished with a $300,000 surplus. My second year, we were $18 million short and we finished with a $350,000 surplus.

We have done more for less and while we were doing this we’ve saved the city in lawsuits. We decided that we were going to stand up and fight for the citizens and their tax dollars. We’re not going to waste these tax dollars by giving money away in settlements. Settlements didn’t happen under out watch. We saved $200 million in verdicts and court winning cases, over 90 percent victories. Under my predecessor, they spent $30 million in outside counsel. We’re down to spending $8m. We went from 647 lawyers to 500. So we’ve done more for less in the less three years…if the city attorney’s office can do it so can the district attorney’s office.

AJ: What are your goals if elected?

CT: My goals are to keep you safe. My goals are to keep Los Angeles safe every single day. To reduce crime and keep kids in school because 78 percent of the people in state prison right now for violent crimes have one thing in common Ð they are high school drop outs. And when you have a school district that’s dropping out 52 percent or more of its students, you’re manufacturing felons. That’s why Tom Torlakson (the State Superintendent of Public Instruction) is my other co-campaign chairman. I got Lee Baca, law enforcement and educator Tom Torlakson together. Why? Because for the first time, there’s somebody standing up and saying ‘public education is public safety.’ We need to keep kids in school because if kids stay in school they won’t be drop outs, they won’t get in trouble, they won’t go to jail, they won’t commit felonies and we’ll all be safer. We’ll reduce the population of people exposed to prison.

AJ: Last question, what do you have to say to the Filipino American community. Why should they vote for you?

CT: You will be safer with me as your DA. I will protect you from violent predators, from hate crime, from prostitution, from gang members. I will work hand-in-hand with law enforcement to make sure you’re safer. The door will always be open to your community representatives if you want to come and talk to me about issues in your community and how we can keep the Filipino and Asian community safer. Joseph Pimentel/AJPress