In those odd moments when he isn’t napping, calling developers for money or posturing as if he actually does something for the people of Los Angeles, Councilman Jack Weiss seems to have a rare knack of making enemies.
You can talk to almost anyone in Weiss’ 
Westside/Sherman Oaks/Encino district who has paid attention to the councilman’s record of public service over the last eight years and the verdict is nearly unanimous: Anyone but Jack Weiss. They even tried to recall him from office over his sellouts to developers, his duplicitous actions on digital billboards and his deaf ear to their concerns.
Just yesterday, Councilwoman Jan Perry said she found Weiss’ self-congratulatory ads for his City Attorney campaign “disappointing.” Controller Laura Chick called them “offensive.” Councilman Dennis Zine, a strong supporter of Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich, dismissed Weiss as an “egotistical individual who will do anything to try to convince voters to elect him to public office.”
And today, Jane Usher — who resigned recently as head of the Planning Commission after courageously trying to stop digital billboard blight and protect the quality of life in the city’s neighborhoods — came out strongly in support of Trutanich, saying Weiss’ candidacy “is undermined by his antagonism to neighborhoods and by his profound reliance
upon developers and lobbyists.”
Their public comments reflected the disdain for Weiss so many inside City Hall, elected officials and staff, have been whispering about for so long — whispering because the intimidation tactics employed by Mayor Villaraigosa and his cronies have silenced most of the city’s most influential voices.
Weiss does have friends in high place including the mayor’s clique and Police Chief William Bratton who like his go-along-to-get-along willingness to do whatever they want whenever they want it.
Last week, Bratton took the extraordinary step — both 
ethically and in terms of police practice and policy — and endorsed Weiss with feint praise, saying, “At this particular time, it’s crucial that the city attorney know and
get along with the U.S. attorney, district attorney, Los Angeles Police
Department and the city in general.”
We’ll soon find out if the “city in general” likes Weiss so much but we know District Attorney Steve Cooley does not. He is the leading supporter of Trutanich. The U.S. attorney is unlikely to comment about a former employee with an undistinguished record as a government lawyer.
That leaves just the LAPD, which in the absence of a vote of the rank-and-file (80 percent of whom live outside the city), means Bratton himself.
It’s hard to believe a tough cop like Bratton respects a guy as soft as Weiss who even when he’s right as he was six years ago in calling attention to the lack of police crime lab staff to test rape kits is incapable of actually getting anything accomplished.
It’s easy to understand Bratton’s support of Weiss who is certain to carry on the tradition of Rocky Delgadillo that Usher described as “a striking
legacy of misjudgment and cronyism.”
What’s disturbing is that in doing so Bratton violates one of the canons of law enforcement, one of the principles identified in the Christopher Commission’s blueprint for reform of the LAPD in 1991.
In a section entitled “Political Activity of the Chief,” the Christopher Commission noted the legal right of the chief like other civil servants to engage in political activities but it raised serious questions about the appropriateness of then Chief Daryl Gates backing Robert Philobosian for District Attorney in 1984.
The concern was that his action “politicized the Department, damaged officer morale, and undermined public confidence in the Department’s impartiality and objectivity.”
It noted a survey that found police chiefs across the country were nearly unanimous in believing they should not endorse “under any circumstances.”
Even Gates agreed and testified to the commission that he regretted endorsing Councilman Hal Bernson because he was “angry” and felt it was “improper” and that such endorsements “should be discouraged.”
All I can say is Jack Weiss is no Robert Philobosian, he’s not even a Hal Bernson.
For the Chief of Police to endorse someone like Weiss certainly politicizes the department and undermines public confidence.
Bratton doesn’t have the excuses that Gates had back then. It is a disservice to the department and to the city.
But you haven’t heard a peep from the mayor or the Police Commission. And that’s what should make voters convinced that Weiss must be stopped.
This is not the LAPD of William Parker or Daryl Gates despite its abuses at the May Day rally that have cost taxpayers a fortune. We’re proud of the LAPD and the progress that has been made.
Bratton’s endorsement of someone like Jack Weiss threatens those gains that have cost us so dearly. We don’t need a “yes man” as city attorney doing the chief’s bidding. We need someone who will bring integrity to the office and in the words of Jane Usher “restore the office to a stronghold of honorable public service.“
I came across a flyer that said “Fact is, Weiss missed 38% of his Council meetings in 2007 and missed 32% just last year. If any regular person missed work that much they would lose their job. (Source: LA City Clerk)”
Just wondering-When Ms Usher refers to ‘restoring the office to a stronghold of honorable service’ what time period is she referring to? Does she think James Hahns 4 term tenure was that good? Im just not sure the City Atty office has been any good for as long as anyone can remember.
Jane seems to talk a good game and wrote a very well recieved missive when she left office, but not sure she was too effective in her job. Granted, she had a very tough job holding the developers at bay, when they have been, and always will be the true power in LA Politics. Usually, for the worse.
1:19 who just “came across” that flyer and is leaving this message on blog posts all over town, doesn’t mention that he or she is reading from Trutunuch’s own campaign flyer, a nasty and mean- spirited thing so infantile and embarrassing they don’t even want to credit it. Other “quotes” out of context and without correct attitubution, forgetting to mention that his own work as Asst. DA was brief and 30 years ago, that all his own endorsements come from Cooley’s influence while claiming to run as an outsider and that Weiss working well with the Chief and Mayor is negative while his coziness to Cooley and far greater reliance on him given his own lack of public service record, is positive. Like Bratton was quoted, he and the other challengers “come out of the blue” as far as public service goes, which makes him “nervous.”
Trutanuch’s flyer and all campaign statements and literature also forget to mention that he’s Rocky Delgadillo’s lawyer — in his Times article Zahniser says calls to Rocky’s office in connection to an article on Nuch were “referred to Trutanich.” Hmmmm… so different and truthful. Like listing your occupation as “environmental attorney” while representing Polluters, denying you represent the NRA, although it’s one of his firm’s biggest clients, on the grounds that his partner does most of that work — in a firm where they all work so closely together, he admits elsewhere.
All this lack of honesty or at best burying the inconvenient truth, and huge emphasis on negative campaigning so early while fudging the truth about his own limited public service experience (like playing up how dangerous his brief stint was as Asst. DA 30 years ago, dodging bullits from Crips and Bloods allegedly — shades of Hillary’s sniper fire, which she’s admitted was a mistake and can laugh about it) while not telling us it was 30 years ago. He has no experience whatsoever with the very different world of gangs and crime today. Just ask Bratton again about how much he knows about Trutanuch and ask Trutanuch what he knows about working with LAPD in the trenches today. But if I want to avoid a stiff fine for dumping toxic waste, I know who to call. I was open to a change from city hall, but he’d be much worse.
“Vote for anyone but Jack Weiss” that was Denis Zine’s advice this morning on KABC. Zine is one of the few councilmembers with the guts to come out and tell the truth about Jack Weiss.
By the way, does anyone actually know how many cases Jack Weiss tried all those years ago when he was a AUSA? According to Jack Weiss, it’s “err, about 8″ so you know that’s a high estimate. According to a former AUS Attorney who worked there during Weiss’s less than stellar time at the US Attorney’s Office, Weiss tried precisely 2 cases. One of those cases involved a former Mousketeer, Darlene Gillespie. In that case, Weiss the super crime fighter secured a significant jail sentence – 3 months. My advice to Weiss? “Hit the road Jack!”
According to Controller Laura Chick’s Audit of the Forensic DNA Backlog Reduction Grant Program Awards, the Los Angeles Police Department lost nearly $500.000 in grant funding due to the Department’s lax oversight of the monies.
http://www.lacity.org/ctr/audits/DNA_FinalReport_102008.pdf
2-12 @ 9:12am…..quit posing as some interested la resident when it is obvious you are simply one of Jack’s paid hacks whose job it is to surf the blogs and throw out lies for Weiss damage control…..your allegations are total nonsense you know it and so do we.
The real issue is the Weiss/developer/mayoral cronyism and his do nothing terms in office. The simple fact is that Weiss is a lackey of developers and the mayor and would make a terrible City Attorney.
End of story…..put a fork in it!!!
Yeah we all know that Ace Smith is hitting all of the blogs……….Weiss is feeling the heat.
When in doubt on election day, vote for anyone but WEISS
I recently went to hear the candidates for City Attorney speak and I walked away knowing who can handle the office of City Attorney. While I walked in with the mindset of being a Weiss supporter, I left the room a Trutanich supporter and believer.
Go “Nuch” and help LA get on the right track.
Michael Amerian is the only candidate in the race that actually works in the city attorney’s office.
9:12 (or is it Ace Smith?) is right. Trutanich’s prosecutorial experience was 30 years ago. He has no idea what the city attorney does and what kind of cases it prosecutes.
Weiss is even worse. He recently told a gathering of the Women’s City Attorney Association that he “started 8 trials.” That’s less than the average number of trials completed by the city attorney in a single week.
Get someone who will know what to do from Day 1.
Michael Amerian for City Attorney
5:18/ Amerian or his peson grossly misrepresents Weiss’s record as usual, and career prosecutors who’ve worked with him have come out and said so. Maybe his campaign is giving Amerian too much of a free pass because they’re not going negative or figuring he doesn’t have a chance and don’t want to engage him, but Weiss has a solid record in both public and private practice and this claim is false. I don’t know what you mean about cases “started” but it seems to be some kind of deceptive semantic game and comes off as childish, like other Amerian comments, when I’ve heard this on the radio.
This issue of the number of trials Jack Weiss handled as an Assistant US Attorney is easy to put to rest: Weiss just has to provide a list of his cases. This is not up to his opponents: if they provide a list, Weiss and his supporters will continue to argue the list is not complete. So, Jack, put up or shut up.
The truth is, of course, that Weiss can’t. I was present at the candidates forum organized by the Association of Black City Attorneys. Jack Weiss was asked by the moderator how many cases he had tried, and he said “about eight”. I remember this vividly because I had always considered Weiss a lightweight, but when he said “about eight”, even my jaw dropped.
Anyone supporting Jack Weiss for D.A. must take a time out, take a deep breath and rethink their logic…When was the last time you heard Jack Weiss do anything good for underprilege kids in CD5? What has he done to “prevent” crime by committing to school and park programs that steer kids out of trouble? All I hear is “prosecute, prosecute and prosecute”…Why do billboards deserve more attention than the future of our kids?
Thanks from sweden for this post