NOTE: Check this blog for massive ZD City update from past 48 hours.
I told you that Shitty Attorney Rocky "Delgadilldo" Delgadillo belongned in prison based on my experience with his office and what ZD investigators told him two years ago.
LA city auditor serves city attorney with subpoena
From: LA Daily News
Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick served a subpoena on City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo Thursday morning for records on the workers' compensation program managed by his office.
The subpoena steps up a fight over whether the city controller has the right to audit the offices of elected officials.
Chick says she can; Delgadillo says she can't.
Frustrated with the internal struggle, Chick took her complaint public.
"The people of Los Angeles have a right to know how their government spends their hard-earned tax dollars," Chick said during a press conference Thursday.
"The City Attorney's decision to withhold this important information from public scrutiny is a slap in the face to the people he serves."
But Delgadillo's office said Chick is overstepping her authority by trying to initiate the audit of the city attorney's office and by issuing a subpoena.
Besides, Delgadillo spokesman Nick Velasquez said, the city attorney's office is overhauling its workers' compensation unit at the request of the City Council and now isn't the best time for an audit.
"An additional review in the midst of this major transition would be disruptive and likely yield inaccurate conclusions at this time," Velasquez said in a statement.
This isn't the first time the controller and city attorney have clashed over the power to audit his office.
In 2005, Delgadillo refused to allow Chick to audit his use of
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outside counsel, after learning that the cost of hiring private attorneys had jumped from $14 million to $30 million in four years.
Rebuffed at the city level, state auditors stepped in and found Delgadillo's office exercised lax oversight and budget control of outside counsel contracts.
Earlier this year, when the council was debating whether to move oversight of the gang prevention programs to the mayor's office, Delgadillo warned that Chick would not have the authority to audit the gang programs if they were in the office of an elected official, such as the mayor.
Delgadillo reminded Chick that the charter reform commission had concerns that a controller with the power to audit elected officials could essentially use taxpayer money to do negative political research on a political enemy.
Chick fought back with her own legal opinion by Duke University School of Law Professor Erwin Chemerinsky, who chaired the charter reform commission.
Chemerinsky argued the charter approved by voters in 1999 gave the controller the power to audit any city program - including those in the offices of elected officials.
But attorney George Kieffer, who headed the appointed charter reform commission, said the members didn't discuss the possibility of auditing programs in the office of an elected official, so there is some ambiguity over the controller's authority that may have to be resolved by a court.
So Chick knew she might run into resistance when she notified Delgadillo on June 16 that she was going to conduct a performance audit of his workers' compensation program, which paid out $128 million in claims this year - up 9 percent over last year.
Chick said she believes there is a conflict of interest in having Delgadillo dictate the legal opinions that prevent an audit of his office.
"I want another opinion," Chick said.
The controller has conducted 154 audits over the last seven years and issued one subpoena previously to the Los Angeles Police Relief Association, which is privately operated but received city funds.
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