How 'bout a little conflict check?
Here in the blogosphere, it's time to monger up a few more rumours. Here's a letter you probably won't read in the Former Fishwrap of Record tomorrow that is rumoured to have been sent to City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo today.
Dear Mr. Delgadillo:
For a number of years now, the residents of the Sunland – Tujunga area of the City of Los Angeles have been witnessing, and subject to, Home Depot’s devious tactics to avoid compliance with our Foothill Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan and mitigating the obvious impacts of a "Big Box" project. The Sunland–Tujunga Alliance, Inc. - No Home Depot Campaign is an informal
grassroots association made up of thousands of residents, businesses and property owners in the Foothills Community of the City of Los Angeles. We filed the LA Municipal Code §12.26(K) challenge to the Los Angeles Department of Building & Safety determination that this construction work to build a new Home Depot store in Sunland was not a “Project” under the Foothill Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan.
After the March 9, 2007 detailed decision by the Zoning Administrator, who agreed with our structural engineers and experts, Home Depot stepped up its clandestine efforts to derail and overturn our challenge. Home Depot hired PR firms to distort the facts, bused in paid and
disinterested people from out of the Sunland area to pack the various hearings, and fabricated bogus and inflammatory “conscience” issues, etc. We were informed that representatives
of Home Depot privately met with each of the North Valley Area Planning Commissioners prior to the June 7, 2007 hearing, to pressure the Commissioners to grant their appeal. We were also
informed by the City that such ex parte contacts are improper and prohibited, let alone the questions such secret meetings raise about possible Brown Act violation concerns! We followed the rules while Home Depot and its representatives somehow seem to be exempt.
The law firm of Latham & Watkins has recently filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles to overturn the City Council’s decision to honor our Specific Plan and to protect our environment by applying CEQA to this project. Latham & Watkins’ lawsuit claims $10 million in damages against the City. These are serious matters.
Sunland–Tujunga Alliance, Inc. - No Home Depot Campaign is and has always been the other party in this section 12.26(K) review. We had discussions with Assistant City Attorney Peter Guiterrez about that process; the issues raised by Home Depot and their law firm Latham & Watkins, and our own legal analysis of such claims. We were informed that Mr. Guiterrez had closed door meetings with attorneys from Latham & Watkins regarding this project. We observed Mr. Guiterrez at hearings on this matter laughing and chatting with various attorneys from the Latham & Watkins law firm. We had discounted those as just friendly conversations or meetings about City business or other projects. Now we are shocked to read in the Los Angeles Times that PeterGuiterrez has joined the law firm of Latham & Watkins.
We have no idea of how long those law firm recruitment discussions had been going on. This unique, controversial Home Depot store project, the amount of money spent by Home Depot on thateffort, and the City Council’s final decision have become an embarrassment to Latham & Watkins and its image of control over land use matters at City Hall. Therefore we have no doubt that Mr. Gutierrez has knowledge of the City of Los Angeles practices, rules, legal theories, defenses and possible weaknesses in this section 12.26 (K) process that are a benefit to Latham & Watkins. The nature and timing of these issues raise serious ethical concerns.
Attorney-client communications and privileges are the hallmarks of our legal system ensuring that the client, in this case, the Los Angeles City Council, will feel free to talk with and gain the best advice from the City Attorney’s office. How can anyone have confidence in the legal system, if an Assistant City Attorney, initially acting on one side of the issue, can so quickly become a member of the law firm that is now suing the City over the same matter? We see these dual roles as creating an unacceptable conflict of interest.
Mr. Guiterrez has accepted employment adverse to his former client, the City of Los Angeles. There will be shared access to possible privileged and confidential information. Regardless of the promises of Latham & Watkins, no law firm’s confidential firewalls or fictional isolation efforts ever work for such close congenial office arrangements. The critical question is does Mr. Guiterrez’s conflict of interest contaminate that law firm, requiring its disqualification? At least for appearance sake, we feel that it does.
Thank you for looking into these important ethical concerns and troubling recent events. We look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Joseph Barrett, President
Sunland-Tujunga Alliance, Inc.
Abby Diamond, Secretary
Sunland-Tujunga Alliance, Inc.
Dear Mr. Delgadillo:
For a number of years now, the residents of the Sunland – Tujunga area of the City of Los Angeles have been witnessing, and subject to, Home Depot’s devious tactics to avoid compliance with our Foothill Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan and mitigating the obvious impacts of a "Big Box" project. The Sunland–Tujunga Alliance, Inc. - No Home Depot Campaign is an informal
grassroots association made up of thousands of residents, businesses and property owners in the Foothills Community of the City of Los Angeles. We filed the LA Municipal Code §12.26(K) challenge to the Los Angeles Department of Building & Safety determination that this construction work to build a new Home Depot store in Sunland was not a “Project” under the Foothill Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan.
After the March 9, 2007 detailed decision by the Zoning Administrator, who agreed with our structural engineers and experts, Home Depot stepped up its clandestine efforts to derail and overturn our challenge. Home Depot hired PR firms to distort the facts, bused in paid and
disinterested people from out of the Sunland area to pack the various hearings, and fabricated bogus and inflammatory “conscience” issues, etc. We were informed that representatives
of Home Depot privately met with each of the North Valley Area Planning Commissioners prior to the June 7, 2007 hearing, to pressure the Commissioners to grant their appeal. We were also
informed by the City that such ex parte contacts are improper and prohibited, let alone the questions such secret meetings raise about possible Brown Act violation concerns! We followed the rules while Home Depot and its representatives somehow seem to be exempt.
The law firm of Latham & Watkins has recently filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles to overturn the City Council’s decision to honor our Specific Plan and to protect our environment by applying CEQA to this project. Latham & Watkins’ lawsuit claims $10 million in damages against the City. These are serious matters.
Sunland–Tujunga Alliance, Inc. - No Home Depot Campaign is and has always been the other party in this section 12.26(K) review. We had discussions with Assistant City Attorney Peter Guiterrez about that process; the issues raised by Home Depot and their law firm Latham & Watkins, and our own legal analysis of such claims. We were informed that Mr. Guiterrez had closed door meetings with attorneys from Latham & Watkins regarding this project. We observed Mr. Guiterrez at hearings on this matter laughing and chatting with various attorneys from the Latham & Watkins law firm. We had discounted those as just friendly conversations or meetings about City business or other projects. Now we are shocked to read in the Los Angeles Times that PeterGuiterrez has joined the law firm of Latham & Watkins.
We have no idea of how long those law firm recruitment discussions had been going on. This unique, controversial Home Depot store project, the amount of money spent by Home Depot on thateffort, and the City Council’s final decision have become an embarrassment to Latham & Watkins and its image of control over land use matters at City Hall. Therefore we have no doubt that Mr. Gutierrez has knowledge of the City of Los Angeles practices, rules, legal theories, defenses and possible weaknesses in this section 12.26 (K) process that are a benefit to Latham & Watkins. The nature and timing of these issues raise serious ethical concerns.
Attorney-client communications and privileges are the hallmarks of our legal system ensuring that the client, in this case, the Los Angeles City Council, will feel free to talk with and gain the best advice from the City Attorney’s office. How can anyone have confidence in the legal system, if an Assistant City Attorney, initially acting on one side of the issue, can so quickly become a member of the law firm that is now suing the City over the same matter? We see these dual roles as creating an unacceptable conflict of interest.
Mr. Guiterrez has accepted employment adverse to his former client, the City of Los Angeles. There will be shared access to possible privileged and confidential information. Regardless of the promises of Latham & Watkins, no law firm’s confidential firewalls or fictional isolation efforts ever work for such close congenial office arrangements. The critical question is does Mr. Guiterrez’s conflict of interest contaminate that law firm, requiring its disqualification? At least for appearance sake, we feel that it does.
Thank you for looking into these important ethical concerns and troubling recent events. We look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Joseph Barrett, President
Sunland-Tujunga Alliance, Inc.
Abby Diamond, Secretary
Sunland-Tujunga Alliance, Inc.
Cc: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
Eric Garcetti, President LA City Council
Cindy Cleghorn, Sunland-Tujunga NC
Vic Castro, Sunland-Tujunga DAC
California State Bar
We are still looking for a real print scribe to confirm this rumoured letter.
Labels: a guy in la, home depot, mayor antonio villaraigosa, rocky delgadillo, sunland-tujunga
Posted by Joseph F. Mailander @ 11/16/2007 02:39:00 PM
18 Comments:
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That's why my prediction will come true - conflict of interest, lots of money for outside counsel, possible backroom involvement by two Clowncil members, etc. The City Council will be told by their experts they're better off settling. Not for $10 million but for their permit. And yes, big bad Home Depot will bow down, admit they did some things wrong and agree to some cosmetic "concessions."
Wendy Greuel now off the hook. Mayor V gets his Home Depot.
I told you this months ago. How come you people didn't see it coming?
See you at the Grand Opening!
The City will not settle. The lawsuit
is viewed at as being very weak and even absurd.
That is the word we are getting.
This baby is going to court.
I'd bet HD accusing city officials of giving them advice to sue backfired, and they're all mad as hell, will go to court in principle on that.
Why don't you just ask the cosigners if they wrote the letter? I hope they don't get themselves into legal trouble for taking on HD. Even HOA presidents have been sued when they oppose "developer's rights," right or wrong, lawsuits from rich companies against little guys are a real pain.
The person who wrote that Home Depot has a weak case is an idiot. They have a very strong case, and if the City hires outside council. The outside law firm will tell the city that they have a weak case. This will be settled by issueing building permits and the City paying for lawyers fees for both HD and the outside law firm.
The Sunland Tujunga activists will have spent literally millions of dollars of the people of Los Angeles' money to defend the indefensible. This money could have been used to fix up the hell hole which is Tujunga and everyone would of been better off.
I am surprised that CD2 did not have the guts to tell the nimbys in Tujunga no from the very beginning.
The City will not hire an outside law firm, they are quite ready to defend themselves.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs has been assigned as
the judge for this case. The case number for those that follow these sort of things is
BS 111 954
Judge Janavs is thorough, does most of her own research, and has little patience for flashy attorneys or crybabies (Latham & Watkins?).
I think Mayor Sam had a point with the Rick Caruso site. HD can discover documents on Do-It Center, Joe Barret and Jim Alger. Imagine they will all subpoenas soon. When that fact is on the table the city will have to back down.
City attorneys are telling the council they have a weak case. They advised them of potential litigation at the time.
Yes, I can confirm the authenticity
of the letter. It was sent via email to several media outlets today, and Rocky will have his hard copy on Monday.
He's barking up the wrong tree.
If he wants L & W disqualified, he needs to tell the judge and the State Bar Office of the Chief Trial Counsel.
Here's the complaint form url:
http://www.calbar.ca.gov/calbar/pdfs/DispComp.pdf
This city will be in big trouble if any of these lame asses are elected city attorney. We don't need Weiss Ass who is dumber then a door knob or a gun rights activist. Isn't there anyone else with leadership in a city with 4 million people?
....Councilman Jack Weiss secured the backing of Sheriff Lee Baca, the county's top law enforcement officer, for his 2009 campaign for city attorney...What Weiss did not know was that a year after he received the endorsement, Baca would urge another lawyer to enter the race: former Deputy Dist. Atty. Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich, an environmental lawyer whose resume presents him, in some ways, as the polar opposite of Weiss.
As Weiss was pushing for new gun regulations, Trutanich's firm represented more than a dozen gun rights groups and firearms manufacturers.
"Judge Janavs is thorough, does most of her own research, and has little patience for flashy attorneys or crybabies (Latham & Watkins?)."
November 16, 2007 8:03 PM
If she is on the bench, the City is toast. Not because the opposition is correct, but because the City knows that this Judge doesnt put up with any crap from the Mayor et al,. In the past the City and the Mayor have lost because of her, or the Mayor has asked that another Judge be used when he drew her as the Judge. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs is woman Villa can't control or con. Go get 'em Judge!
Latham & Watkins has become a symbol of the corrupted City Hall decision making process: all decisions are driven by political calculation over the next step up to higher political office. Latham is playing into this calculus by offering elected officials just what they want: a stream of campaign contributions and other assistance to achieve their dreams of higher office.
Left behind is the public interest. Our City has returned to the Shaw Administration. Public decision making is merely for sale and Latham & Watkins is the broker.
Complaints and investigations are needed regarding the actions of Latham attorneys who are so arrogant they act as if they are above the law.
Baca backing a no name like Troutavich is just going to make him look like a fool.
Baca seems to want to break up the Villar-Weiss-Bratton triumverate, because he feels second fiddle despite having a bigger force than the LAPD. His deputies think he's petty and has too much ego and vindictiveness.
He does have good ideas on how to deal with youths just getting drafted into gangs, and is smart and educated, but if he thinks his support can earn a win for some Troutavich, his reality monitor isn't working.
Baca is way out of tune with the L A voter if he thinks a pro-gun advocate and anti-environmentalist has the city's pulse.
5:51 am,
The letter was sent to the state bar as well (I neglected to mention that earlier).
Hey Higby maybe your old friend Shelly Sloan can help Joe out here.
I think even Clarence Darrow isn't going to be able to get Joe out of the world of legal hurt he's got coming his way.
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