Legal Staff Makes a Case for Itself

“We are the world. . . .”: We are Little League coaches, Girl Scout cookie sellers, poets, nature watchers--even Republicans. Here’s the punch line: We’re tough as hell on crime.

So said Santa Monica acting City Atty. Joe Lawrence in an impassioned defense of the city’s embattled legal staff at a recent City Council budget study session.

What with the firing of former City Atty. Bob Myers and a cacophony of complaints about the city’s policies of prosecuting the homeless, the office’s reputation has taken a shellacking in the past few years.

Lawrence contends the facts don’t match the rhetoric, noting that 90.6% of homeless people arrested for criminal acts are prosecuted--an even higher rate than for non-transient crooks.

(Of course, that doesn’t take into account the city’s encampment law, which prohibits sleeping in the parks. It isn’t being enforced at all while a legal challenge is pending.)

Lawrence, who would like to become the permanent city attorney, said those arrested on felony charges in Santa Monica are far more likely to be prosecuted than in Los Angeles because his office takes on most of those cases that the district attorney declines to file.

As far the oft-repeated charge that the office staff is far larger than warranted for a relatively small city, Lawrence said the city is sued four times as often as, say, Torrance (which has half again the population), and handles complex civil rights and housing litigation.

Lawrence also noted that the City Council keeps the attorneys quite busy with its demands. He got that one right, but we have to challenge him on one other point: that some members of an office known for its staunch liberalism voted for George Bush and Ross Perot.

Would the closet Republicans in the city attorney’s office please drop us a card? We promise not to tell.

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Zev’s paper route: Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, speaking in behalf of Fox Studio’s planned $200-million expansion before the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee, was trying to make a point last week about the importance of the movie industry.

“I want to support the motion picture industry,” he said. “My first job was delivering papers to Sam Goldwyn.”

“And it may be your last job,” joked committee chairman Hal Bernson.

The remark drew enthusiastic applause from a handful of Fox opponents who have criticized Yaroslavsky for being too soft on the studio. It was, after all, the only thing they had to cheer about after the committee approved the Fox plan.

“Thanks, Hal,” replied Yaroslavsky, once the commotion subsided. “You just made a couple of people’s day.”

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Office politics: Councilman Nate Holden has been complaining for quite a while that he needs more office space. In 1991, he said he wanted the city to spend $280,000 to expand his third-floor City Hall office, but backed off after a colleague suggested it would be inappropriate given the shape of the city’s finances.

Now he is trying a different tack. He has his eye on Councilman Michael Woo’s larger, spiffier suite on the second floor. Woo, who lost his bid for mayor, will be officially out of office June 30. His office is regarded as the nicest of the four being vacated by outgoing council members.

Never noted for his shyness, Holden said he recently went to Woo’s office to inspect it--and was told to leave by Woo staffers.

Council President John Ferraro said the custom is that council members with the most seniority get the first shot at offices being vacated. That means Woo’s office is Councilman Marvin Braude’s for the taking if Braude wants it.

“I haven’t heard Marvin requesting to move. Nate is always complaining about needing more space,” Ferraro said.

Woo, still decompressing from the long mayoral campaign, professes utter indifference over who moves in.

“I’m not losing any sleep over it,” he said.

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Long-winded: The Malibu City Council took nearly three hours on Monday to wade through its consent calendar, forcing a week’s postponement of the public hearing on the 1993-94 city budget and new ordinances.

Items on the consent calendar are considered routine and are intended to be approved with a single vote. But questions raised by council members and residents on 13 of the 38 items on the calendar caused those items to be pulled off for individual discussion. That left only 50 minutes for public hearings and other city business.

Councilman John Harlow said some items, such as a new contract with a private firm to administer parking citations, were anything but routine and should not be on the consent calendar. Councilman Walter Keller said a four-inch-thick agenda was too much for the council to get through in a single meeting.

Mayor Carolyn Van Horn, who sets the council agenda with the city manager, gently suggested that council members could keep things moving by reining in their oratory. Alternatively, she said, if the council wants a smaller agenda, it will have to meet more frequently.

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Council meetings this week:

* Beverly Hills: no meeting.

* Culver City: no meeting.

* Los Angeles: 10 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. 200 N. Spring St. (213) 485-3126.

* Malibu: 6:30 p.m. Monday, Hughes Laboratory auditorium, 3011 Malibu Canyon Road; city offices: (310) 456-2489.

* Santa Monica: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. 1685 Main St. (310) 393-9975.

* West Hollywood: 7 p.m. Monday. West Hollywood Park Auditorium, 647 N. San Vicente Blvd.; city offices: (310) 854-7460.

Staff writers Nancy Hill-Holtzman, Ron Russell, Lee Harris and correspondent G. Jeanette Avent contributed to this report.