Picus, Colleagues Clash Over Law Firm Selections

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus turned a routine debate into a ruckus Friday, prompting one exasperated lawmaker to finally label Picus’ views “ridiculous.”

At the center of the mini-tempest was a proposal to select 23 law firms to do legal work for the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.

But Picus, who represents Woodland Hills and Canoga Park, quickly told her colleagues she was unhappy that none of the firms was based in the San Fernando Valley. Most were from downtown Los Angeles, she said.

Under questioning, Steve Besser, a top manager in the city attorney’s office, told Picus that several Valley firms had been among the 45 firms originally recommended for the legal work. But, Besser said, a council committee had cut the list to 23 firms and none of the survivors were from the Valley.

Picus then introduced a motion that a new list including Valley firms be brought back to the City Council next Tuesday.

Her motion inspired an outburst of guffaws and mimicry. Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who represents the Harbor area, asked that law firms from that area be included on the list. Council President John Ferraro lightheartedly made a pitch for a law firm from each of the council’s 15 districts.

Councilman Richard Alatorre, who represents the Eastside and had chaired the committee that recommended the 23 firms, sarcastically called for an Eastside law firm to be added to the list. “It’s ridiculous,” Alatorre said.

Finally, a motion to include one Valley firm--the Woodland Hills-based firm of Walleck, Shane, Stanard & Blender--to the list was defeated on a 7-6 vote, one vote short of the eight needed for a majority. On a subsequent 9-4 vote, the 23 firms were approved.

After the vote, Besser said the Walleck firm actually was the only Valley firm on the list of 45.

Nelson E. Brestoff, an attorney with the 60-year-old Walleck firm, said in an interview later that he met with Picus early this week to complain about the absence of Valley firms on the list.

The Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. also got on the bandwagon, firing off letters Tuesday to council members about the Valley-less list. “The message it sends is embarrassing,” VICA president Bonnie Matheson said in the letter. “It is not true that the only law firms capable of representing the city and the CRA are located downtown.”

Brestoff, a former Picus appointee to a Ventura Boulevard citizens planning panel and a member of VICA’s board of directors, was equally blunt in his view of the vote. “It was one of those downtown versus the Valley issues--and the Valley lost,” he said.