Candidates For City Attorney and City Controller to Speak in Encino

The Encino Neighborhood Council is sponsoring a candidates’ forum for City Attorney and City Controller on April 24—and community members are invited to meet the runoff candidates for the two government posts as well as ask them questions before casting ballots in the May 21 elections.

“These are important positions—the City Attorney enforces the laws and prosecutes criminals and the City Controller plays an important role in the oversight of City funds, audits, and budgeting,” Encino Neighborhood Council President Glenn Bailey wrote in a council newsletter e-mailed to about 1,000 residents and stakeholders this past Friday. “Please invite your neighbors and friends—we want a large turnout. Let’s show them that Encino cares!”

The runoff candidates for the City Attorney post are incumbent Carmen Trutanich and Assemblyman Mike Feuer. Councilman Dennis Zine and attorney Ron Galperin are competing for the City Controller’s post currently held by mayoral runoff candidate Wendy Gruel.

The candidates’ forum will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Encino Community Center, located on 4935 Balboa Blvd. (north of Ventura Boulevard). Because of the forum, the regular Encino Neighborhood Council Board meeting which will begin earlier than usual at 6:30 p.m.

Bailey told Encino-Tarzana Patch that to the best of his knowledge, the April 24 candidates’ forum is the only widely publicized event in Encino open to the public. Besides publicizing the candidates’ forum through the ENC newsletter, hundreds of flyers will be posted throughout the neighborhood as well as door-to-door in residences located near the Encino Community Center, Bailey said.

Based on ENC discussions in past months, among the issues that Bailey expects the two candidates for the City Attorney’s post to address during the forum is vehicle thefts in Encino.

“We have some large park areas in the Sepulveda Basin and we do have an ongoing problem with car break-ins,” he said, adding that the other two issues that the ENC is likely to bring to the attention of Feuer and Trutanich is home break-ins, often by people who case neighborhoods, and the proliferation of so-called group homes in single-family neighborhoods.

Bailey said that while the City Attorney has to work with the police department in investigating crimes, part of the next City Attorney’s success in the job will revolve around his “ability to do the job with less money in the budget than they had several years ago.”

Although the Encino Neighborhood Council hasn’t formulated questions for the candidates’ forum yet, the ENC would like to ask candidates for the City Controller’s post whether they think their job is primarily about oversight of the city’s budget or if it also involves taking an activist’s role in city affairs, Bailey said.

“I’ve seen both candidates speak in the past and they’ve indicated that they’re quite active,” Bailey said.