Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich allegedly threatened to prosecute city building officials last week if they issued permits for six wall signs at the L.A. Live entertainment complex downtown, and a city councilwoman said he threatened her with jail time if she intervened.
The actions generated more heat in L.A.'s contentious fight over billboards and intensified a feud between Trutanich and one of downtown's most politically connected corporations, Anschutz Entertainment Group.
AEG, which owns L.A. Live and is seeking to place large signs on the outside walls of its new movie theater, called Trutanich's actions "bullying and political thuggery." Trutanich called AEG a "good citizen" but warned that he would prosecute anyone who appears to violate a ban on outdoor advertising approved by the City Council in August.
"I'm going to enforce the law. There's a ban," Trutanich said. "I told them what the consequences were. Nobody got threatened. Absolutely not."
Trutanich confirmed, however, that in a meeting last week he vowed to file misdemeanor charges against Raymond Chan, interim general manager of the Department of Building and Safety, if he approved permits for signs on AEG's Regal Cinemas. He also threatened to file charges against AEG representatives in the room if they attempted to use political connections to circumvent him, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
Trutanich declined to discuss allegations that he threatened Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose district includes L.A. Live, saying their conversation was confidential because as a council member she is his client.
But Perry said the outdoor advertising ban -- which bars new digital signs, supergraphics and billboards facing freeways -- does not cover projects already approved and underway, including the AEG's theater at L.A. Live. Perry said that when she made her case to Trutanich earlier this week, he threatened to send her to jail.
"Our conversation took a direction which did not produce the result I anticipated," Perry said, "and instead ended in the possible threat of incarceration should I pursue my interest in trying to determine why permits had not been issued."
Since he took office on July 1, Trutanich has won key victories in court over billboards. He advised the City Council to approve the sign ban and, weeks later, saw it withstand an initial court challenge.
