Slap at Reiner

The State Bar’s decision to reproach Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner for actions he took while Los Angeles’ city attorney is appropriate. Reiner’s refusal to take his medicine shows why he got in trouble in the first place.

A 15-member Bar review panel, composed of 12 attorneys and three representatives of the general public, unanimously concluded recently that Reiner twice violated conflict-of-interest rules while serving as city attorney.

The panel concluded that Reiner engaged in “improper conduct” when he publicly criticized members of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Public Disorder and Intelligence Unit in 1983, at the same time he was defending the city against a lawsuit that alleged wrongdoing by the unit. As a result of his outburst, the city was forced to spend almost $2 million to retain an outside counsel to represent the policemen who had been relaying on Reiner to defend them.

The panel also faulted Reiner for investigating the outside business activities of former city Planning Director Calvin Hamilton in 1984, using information that Hamilton himself gave to the city attorney’s office in seeking an opinion on the propriety of the activities. The Bar concluded that Reiner’s actions deprived Hamilton of “the normal benefits of an attorney-client relationship.”

The Bar’s reproof is one of the strongest forms of discipline it can impose, although it falls short of disbarment or suspension from legal practice, which must be approved by the state Supreme Court. Despite the severity of the reproach, Reiner insists that the state Bar is “just plain wrong,” and does not understand the role of a public attorney. Reiner insists public attorneys must act as a representatives of the public, not as legal adviser to individual city employees. “They have their point of view; I have my point of view,” Reiner said, adding “we’ll have to agree to disagree.”

That flippant reply is simply not acceptable. Once again, Reiner is trying to glide past criticism of his grandstanding on public issues with a disingenuous aplomb that suggests he can’t figure out why everybody is so upset. Reiner would do more for his political, and legal, reputation by showing remorse on this occasion rather than bravado. At least then the public could be reassured that our district attorney will think twice before taking such ill-advised actions again.