Trutanich gets OK to hire eight staff members

The Los Angeles City Council authorized City Atty.-elect Carmen Trutanich to hire eight staff members as he prepares to take office July 1 -- resolving a problem that officials say arose when outgoing City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo gave job protections to top aides.

Under the City Charter, each incoming city attorney is permitted to appoint eight employees who serve at the prosecutor’s pleasure and leave with the elected official. But Delgadillo granted Civil Service-like job protection rights to a number of aides -- leaving few vacancies for Trutanich during a hiring freeze.

Salaries for eight new Trutanich appointees would cost nearly $1.39 million annually when the city is considering layoffs and furloughs to cover a $530-million deficit.

In an 11-2 vote Tuesday, the council approved a proposal advanced by Delgadillo’s office to pay the salaries of seven political appointees by freeing up money in a city attorney-controlled consumer trust fund, which collects penalties in consumer-protection cases.

An eighth position will be vacated by Delgadillo’s chief deputy, Richard Llewellyn, who plans to work for incoming City Councilman Paul Koretz.

On Tuesday, several members criticized Delgadillo’s decision to put some of those at-will deputies on a tenured track.

“It’s political gaming at its worst,” said Councilman Richard Alarcon, who joined Councilman Tony Cardenas in voting against authorizing the positions. “In a political office, you’ve got to have some political support -- that’s what the eight positions are,” Alarcon said, stating that Delgadillo “eliminated the possibility . . . to comply with the City Charter.”

Councilman Dennis Zine, who heads the city’s Personnel Committee and was one of Trutanich’s most vocal supporters, said Delgadillo had “abused the city’s Charter by locking those positions in.”

“What Delgadillo has done is hamper our city attorney-elect from doing his job,” Zine said.

Llewellyn told the council that prior city attorneys have granted tenure to employees who did not have tenure at first -- “that is allowable under the Charter and we believe it’s allowable here,” Llewellyn said. “The outgoing city attorney has been trying to communicate with the incoming city attorney team -- that we’ll work with them to get the positions and resources they need to do whatever they want.”

Trutanich’s political consultant John Shallman said the city attorney-elect was grateful for the council’s support. “While there is tons of talent in the office right now, he wants to bring in a handful of seasoned professionals with fresh eyes and a can-do spirit to change and reform the office of city attorney,” Shallman said.

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maeve.reston@latimes.com