{"id":879,"date":"2026-05-30T10:30:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T10:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=879"},"modified":"2026-05-30T10:30:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T10:30:29","slug":"l-a-city-attorneys-role-could-be-weakened-under-charter-reform-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=879","title":{"rendered":"L.A. city attorney\u2019s role could be weakened under charter reform proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In a few days, Los Angeles voters will be casting ballots for city attorney \u2014 and in a few months, they could be voting to sharply diminish the city attorney\u2019s authority.<\/p>\n

Read more A Becerra-Steyer race in November? It\u2019s possible<\/a><\/p>\n

The city\u2019s Charter Reform Commission has proposed splitting the city attorney\u2019s office into two parts \u2014 an elected city prosecutor, charged with handling criminal misdemeanors, and a mayor-appointed and City Council-confirmed city attorney who would represent the city in civil cases and advise the mayor, city council and city departments.<\/p>\n

The City Council is reviewing the recommendation as part of sweeping changes to city government, including expanding the council from 15 to 25 seats, which could go before voters in the Nov. 3 general election.<\/p>\n

The proposed changes to the city attorney\u2019 office, however, come in the midst of a heated primary campaign, where incumbent Hydee Feldstein Soto is up against three challengers, including a state deputy attorney general and a deputy district attorney.<\/p>\n

Both of those challengers say plans to bifurcate the city attorney\u2019s office are rooted in longstanding conflicts between Feldstein Soto and the City Council.<\/p>\n

Council members have expressed frustration over her handling of rising costs from an outside law firm, where the payout amount has grown to nearly $7.5 million \u2014 with some attorneys billing the city roughly $1,300 an hour. <\/p>\n

And last year, City Council took a 12-0 vote to direct Feldstein Soto to withdraw an effort to halt a federal judge\u2019s order prohibiting LAPD officers from targeting journalists with crowd control weapons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first heard about this idea, I thought it was probably the greatest indictment of the current city attorney that I\u2019ve heard yet,\u201d said John McKinney, a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney who is running for city attorney in Tuesday\u2019s primary.<\/p>\n

McKinney opposes the bifurcation, saying it will cause overlap and confusion. \u201cIf she was doing a good job … we wouldn\u2019t even be having this discussion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Marissa Roy, another candidate in the race, hasn\u2019t taken a position on bifurcation but said Feldstein Soto\u2019s actions triggered the proposed change. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe only reason that bifurcation, or splitting the city attorney\u2019s office, is even going to be going before voters is because we\u2019ve had an incumbent city attorney who has gone so rogue to politicize the role,\u201d said Roy, a deputy state attorney general. <\/p>\n

Roy said accused Feldstein Soto of inappropriately blocking an affordable housing project in Venice. And in her office\u2019s role of drafting ordinance language, Roy said, Feldstein Soto has returned to city council ordinance language that isn\u2019t \u201cfaithful to the intent of the drafter.\u201d <\/p>\n

Feldstein Soto said the proposal to bifurcate the office has nothing to do with her performance. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis issue comes up every single time charter reform comes up,\u201d Feldstein Soto said. \u201cTo me this is all political opportunism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Spencer Pratt says Jesus is his role model. His take on homeless people isn\u2019t Christ-like<\/a><\/p>\n

Feldstein Soto has opposed the split, and former city attorneys have also come out against it, saying an appointed position threatens the independence of the city attorney\u2019s office, takes away from voters the right to elect a city attorney and could cost taxpayers money in order to split the office. <\/p>\n

In a March letter to the Charter Reform Commission, Feldstein Soto said an attorney \u201cserving at the pleasure\u201d of the mayor and city council would face an \u201cinnate, human pressure to harmonize legal advice with the political goals of the appointing officials.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI have been able to provide honest, accurate legal advice to the Mayor, City Council, Controller and departments \u2014 even when that advice is unwelcome \u2014 precisely because I am an independently elected officeholder with an ultimate duty to the public,\u201d she wrote. \u201cAn appointed City Attorney, serving at the pleasure of the Mayor and City Council, faces enormous political pressure on all of these issues, behind closed doors, cloaked in privilege without an independent voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burt Pines, a former city attorney who served from 1973 to 1981, deeply opposes the bifurcation proposal, citing the threat to independence as the largest issue at stake. As city attorney, he said, he was empowered to tell city officials when a proposed action was unlawful and refuse to support it. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to be able to call the shots as you see them, true to the law,\u201d Pines said in an interview. <\/p>\n

Advocates say other cities have bifurcated offices, and splitting it could reduce conflict and provide a clear delineation of roles. <\/p>\n

After consulting with experts and good governance groups, the commission agreed the benefits of bifurcation outweighed the negatives, and it passed unanimously by the commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was easy to get consensus on this,\u201d said Raymond Meza, chair of the commission. The commission\u2019s proposal calls for the city attorney to be nominated by the mayor, and confirmed by the City Council.<\/p>\n

In its report, the commission said that \u201cthe current structure creates conflicts when the same office advises the city and prosecutes cases. Separation provides clearer roles, reduces conflicts, and allows each function to be performed effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other cities have different models for the city attorney\u2019s office: Long Beach has a similar model with bifurcated duties, while New York City has legal representation split up several ways. The San Francisco City Attorney provides legal representation for the city and county of San Francisco, and the San Francisco District Attorney\u2019s Office handles criminal cases in the city and county. <\/p>\n

Mike Bonin, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute, said he has seen the question of splitting the office come up with at least three different city attorneys to varying degrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven that the city attorney is an elected position, there\u2019s always going to be somebody who doesn\u2019t like them,\u201d Bonin, a former city council member, said. \u201cYou need to divorce the question from the occupant and focus on the role \u2014 the charter is not about a particular person, the charter is about the function of the office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Fire-prone California could lose hundreds of millions of dollars for wildfire prevention<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The proposal is being debated as incumbent city attorney Feldstein Soto seeks to fend off challengers in Tuesday\u2019s primary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nL.A. city attorney\u2019s role could be weakened under charter reform proposal - California Relocation Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=879\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"L.A. city attorney\u2019s role could be weakened under charter reform proposal - California Relocation Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The proposal is being debated as incumbent city attorney Feldstein Soto seeks to fend off challengers in Tuesday\u2019s primary.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=879\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"California Relocation Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-30T10:30:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=879#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=879\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b85b48ca4c2015dd056e0e9c18912121\"},\"headline\":\"L.A. city attorney\u2019s role could be weakened under charter reform proposal\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-30T10:30:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=879\"},\"wordCount\":1033,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=879#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/a81a54d9dfc92e5a9bf90200d9c2b86b-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=879#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=879\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=879\",\"name\":\"L.A. city attorney\u2019s role could be weakened under charter reform proposal - California Relocation Journal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=879#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=879#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/a81a54d9dfc92e5a9bf90200d9c2b86b-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-30T10:30:29+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=879#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=879\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=879#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/a81a54d9dfc92e5a9bf90200d9c2b86b-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/a81a54d9dfc92e5a9bf90200d9c2b86b-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Clockwise from top left: Hydee Feldstein Soto, Aida Ashouri, John McKinney and Marissa Roy are running for L.A. 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