Local News in Brief : Cunliffe Defense Contract
A $25,000 maximum contract to provide legal representation to outgoing city official Sylvia Cunliffe in a pending lawsuit brought by one of her employees was approved Friday by the Los Angeles City Council.
Voting 10 to 3, the council agreed to hire the Los Angeles firm of Bayne & Hartley, which also represented Cunliffe in her recent battle to keep her post as head of the General Services Department. Earlier this month, amid accusations of favoritism and harassing an employee, Cunliffe agreed to retire next year while staying on an unpaid leave of absence until then.
Robert O’Neill, a department critic, has sued Cunliffe and the city for invasion of privacy and defamation over her use of arrest records to discredit him. The records of misdemeanors committed by O’Neill more than 20 years ago were included in a memo Cunliffe sent to Mayor Tom Bradley and members of the City Council.
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