Term-limits suit may cost L.A. big bucks
Outside attorneys possible
BY KERRY CAVANAUGH, Staff Writer
LA Daily News

After failing to heed warnings that a City Council term limits/ethics reform measure could face legal challenges, the city is faced with spending thousands of dollars to hire lawyers to defend the plan.
West Los Angeles resident Neil Donner filed a lawsuit Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking to remove the measure - which would give council members a third four-year term - from the Nov. 7 ballot.

The suit says the measure violates the California Constitution because it combines two issues - a term-limit extension and ethics reform - in a single ballot measure.

City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo had warned the council that the measure would leave the city vulnerable to legal challenges, and the suit would have put him in the position of defending the city against the very sort of action he had warned of.

But City Attorney's Office spokesman Nick Velasquez said Delgadillo is considering hiring outside counsel to defend the measure because specialized help is needed.

"The city attorney shared his office's thoughts on this matter. At this juncture, following the council's and mayor's approval of the measure, the city attorney is now charged with defending the city in court and that's what he intends to do," Velasquez said.

Officials could not estimate the cost of defending the measure. Proposition R opponents said they don't want to see taxpayer money used - especially because the public had little input before it was put on the ballot.

"We are extremely concerned that the City Council rejected the legal advice of the city attorney - who was hired by the people to represent our interests - and now the city must spend thousands and thousands of dollars of taxpayer money to defend this ill-conceived, dishonest measure," said Jason Lyon of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council and the Not Prop R campaign.

The City Council, which fast-tracked the term-limits measure, would have to approve the hiring of an outside law firm to handle the case.

The court will consider a request to remove Proposition R from the ballot on Sept. 6 - two days before the city's deadline for printing the voter-information guides.

Proposition R would allow City Council members to run for a third term and would change a number of the city's lobbying and campaign finance disclosure requirements. The measure was proposed by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and League of Women Voters, and quickly approved to go on the ballot by the City Council and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Critics have complained that the measure was rushed through with no input from residents, neighborhood councils or the Ethics Commission.

Supporters have said they hurried to put Proposition R on the November general election ballot, which is expected to have a large turnout, so more people could weigh in on the issue of ethics reform and term-limit extensions.

Supporters and opponents of Proposition R are already facing off in court over the language in each side's ballot arguments. The lawsuit filed by Donner seeks to remove Proposition R from the ballot altogether.

Donner volunteered to put his name on the lawsuit, which was filed by the firm of Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, at the request of Paul Jacob, president of the group U.S. Term Limits.

"This ballot measure is a cruel trick on the voters. They take some minor ethical reforms, some of which are questionable reforms to begin with, and glom onto a term-limit extension," Jacob said.

"This is a classic illustration of why single-subject requirements make sense. They want to put a few things voters like with another thing that voters don't like."

The lawsuit references Delgadillo's concerns expressed in a July 28 report that was sent to the City Council before it voted to put Proposition R on the ballot.

"Combining charter amendments and ordinance provisions in the same ballot question has not been the city's prior practice and could be subject to legal challenge."

kerry.cavanaugh@dailynews.com

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