Resident Concerned About City Attorney's ACE program

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Category: Community News

Published on Monday, 29 November 1999 16:00

Written by Peter

RESIDENT RESPONSE TO "Does the City Attorney Have An Ace Up His Sleave?" RESIDENT COMMENTS AND OPINION (uploaded by reader) TNN does not endorse nor reject resident comments. They will be identified as such and placed in the appropriate category. Swearing will be edited out.

ACE could be abusive to homeowners and small businesses in wrong hands

Yes, there is a great deal of frustration in the community at the way that code violations are not enforced. However, the one-page solution that CM Koretz proposed has morphed in the hands of Trutanich, into an 18 page plan that places far too much power in the hands of the City Attorney. Under the ACE Program, Trutanich controls his own courts where he picks his own people as judges to decide cases according to his instructions. Trutanich gets to fine code violators, and then keep the fines in an account he controls, before deducting his costs and then remitting any left overs to the City's General Fund. All this is fine if it is the worst violators that get hauled into Trutanich's courts. The trouble is the

worst violators don't often have money, and this is very much a money-driven program. So who will become the targets for ACE? Homeowners and small businesses seem to be the likely targets. Regardless of whether you believe that Trutanich has done a good job since taking office, the problem is that there are no guarantees that when Trutanich ceases to be City Attorney (which could be next year if he succeeds in moving on to be District Attorney), ACE might be used purely as a revenue generator for our bankrupt city in much the same way as the police are issuing traffic citations as part of a quota to raise money for the City - something else that Trutanich recently revealed, click here So while we applaud the effort to enforce our codes, the ACE Program takes us nearer to becoming a Police State in the wrong hands, and let's face, once Truanich leaves there is no telling what sort of person could replace him. If the criminal justice system that is supposed to administer violations of our code is not doing its job, then Trutanich should concentrate on using his powers to fix the system, not try to create an alternate system that is rife with dangers of abuse in the wrong hands.