"OLD GRAY HAG" endorses Trutanich, Vahedi, and Pearlman

The "OLD GRAY HAG ON SPRING STREET" has bestowed its editorial blessings on Carmen Trutanich, David Vehadi and Nancy Pearlman for the elective offices of City Attorney, City Council District 5 and Los Angeles Community College District Office 6 respectively.

Excerpts below and links to full editorials.

Carmen Trutanich for City Attorney

Trutanich has represented alleged polluters, and that's a good thing: The city of Los Angeles is one of the nation's biggest polluters, and taxpayers need someone who knows his way through the regulatory process to ensure that cleanups can move forward while penalties remain manageable. But he also was a groundbreaking environmental prosecutor, building up experience and know-how that would serve the city well in its aspirations to become cleaner and greener.

David Vehadi for City Council

Vahedi is often portrayed, for good and for ill, as the outsider candidate. He makes much of the fact that he hasn't held elective office before, although he did run four years ago in an unsuccessful bid to unseat Councilman Jack Weiss. But for an outsider, Vahedi impresses with his encyclopedic knowledge of even the most obscure zoning regulations, Environmental Quality Act provisions and parking policies. He is among the breed of homeowner activists who can match wits and quote Municipal Code passages with any elected official or bureaucrat.

Nancy Pearlman for LACCD Board of Trustees

Yet Pearlman is the stronger candidate of the two. Nakahiro, a lawyer who grew up in Boyle Heights, is an energetic and likable community activist, but he has yet to develop a deep understanding of the community colleges and a well-honed agenda for improving them. Pressed in a meeting with The Times' editorial board for details on what the district needed most, Nakahiro responded that students should understand the governing board's role at the colleges. In truth, most college students care little about such matters; they rightly want to know whether they can land a spot in an over-enrolled class, how to get academic help when they're floundering and why the prices of textbooks are so high.

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