3 Top Officials Are Leaving City Attorney’s Office

Three high-ranking officials at the Los Angeles city attorney’s office are resigning, the latest in a wave of management turnovers as Rocky Delgadillo enters his second term.

With Delgadillo exploring a run for state attorney general, some of the marquee legal names he brought in to improve the luster of the office are pursuing more lucrative job opportunities elsewhere.

They include Terree Bowers, a former U.S. attorney who has been serving as Delgadillo’s chief deputy in charge of the office.

Also departing are Luis Li, chief of the criminal division, and Josh Perttula, who oversees city attorneys working on airport, harbor, and water and power issues.

The departures follow the resignations in recent months of Delgadillo’s top managers in charge of the civil division, the communications department, the real estate and economic development group, government relations and the municipal counsel branch.

Since Delgadillo took office in 2001, his communications department has seen at least nine employees, including seven chief spokespersons, come and go.

“I have been in public service for 23 years and now I have to look out for my family’s needs,” said Bowers, who will be working as a litigator for a downtown law firm.

“I have two young daughters I need to send to college,” he said.

Bowers -- whose career includes a stint as a lead war crimes prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague -- said Delgadillo’s management team is stable.

He cited the office’s success in obtaining gang injunctions and in reducing the city’s civil liability payouts -- from $91 million when Delgadillo took office in 2001 to $30 million now.

The office’s rising costs for hiring outside counsel are under review by state auditors.

“We’re actually saving the city money” by using outside lawyers, said Contessa Mankiewicz, a spokeswoman for Delgadillo. Mankiewicz said that her office is cooperating fully with the audit, and, “We expect everything will go smoothly.”

Perttula did not return calls seeking comment. Li is out of the office on vacation, according to his colleagues.

Administration officials say the departures are normal for a large law office. Almost all the vacancies have been filled, they added.

On Thursday, the office released a statement touting 10 new appointments, including Ivy League law school graduates and attorneys with big-firm experience.

“This is a pretty natural transition point for us,” Mankiewicz said. “We have 500-plus lawyers here. Any firm that size has people come and go, and it’s not the most high-paying job.”

But past and current employees say clashes between attorneys and Delgadillo’s inner circle of non-lawyer advisors have affected morale in the office.

“The workers in the city attorney’s office are extremely frustrated that they can’t do their jobs. It feels to them the entire office is paralyzed ... when the entire management team leaves,” said Julie Butcher, the general manager of Local 347 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents about 450 attorneys in the office.