Specht for City Attorney

The campaign for Los Angeles city attorney has attracted five lawyers. Of the five, Lisa Specht has the combination of intelligence and ambition that we believe makes her the best choice for the post.

Although she may be better known to voters as a part-time television commentator on legal affairs, Specht is highly regarded in her profession for work in civil trials and administrative law.

In her campaign, Specht has been articulate and direct, trying hard to pull discussion back to the issues in joint campaign appearances with her rivals when they wanted to focus on peripheral matters. The handful of issues that she stresses--prosecuting drunk drivers, child-abusers and illegal dumpers of toxic waste--are all important. However, there are other issues, like slum housing and downtown development, that are also vital, if less glamorous. If Specht is elected city attorney, she must make an extra effort to learn about the Los Angeles that exists beyond her political base on the city’s Westside.

Name recognition has made City Controller James Hahn the front-runner in the race. But his substantial lead in opinion polls is more a reflection of the fact that he is the son of a respected leader in Los Angeles government, county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, than of the record that he has made for himself in office. By most accounts, Hahn has done an adequate job as city controller, helping to streamline office operations. He should have stayed in that position longer, because his attempt to move on so soon raises the issue of whether he would be devoted to the office or would simply bide his time until something bigger opened up.

Murray Kane, an attorney for the Community Redevelopment Agency, has more experience as a municipal counsel than the two other major candidates. He has served as a lawyer for dozens of small cities in Los Angeles County as well as the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency. Unfortunately, he is waging an overly aggressive campaign that has at times been deceptive. He claims, for example, that the city attorney’s job should go to a rugged prosecutor who will be tough on crime. Kane must know that a city attorney’s most important work is civil, rather than criminal.

Betsy Mogul and Charles Zinger, the two deputy city attorneys in the race, are knowledgeable about the office and its operations. But Mogul has spent most of her 11 years in the office as a criminal prosecutor, while Zinger has handled civil matters during a 20-year career, and their horizons are limited by their experience. Neither shows much interest in the management problems and the political challenges that face the chief lawyer for a city like Los Angeles.

The city attorney is the city’s lawyer. As such, it is an office in which the top lawyer must have administrative and civil experience--both strong suits with Specht. It also requires a lawyer who knows what its responsibilities are and are not. That Specht understands those responsibilities is clear from her campaign. We recommend a vote for Specht for city attorney.