City Attorney Requests Increase in Budget
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City Atty. James K. Hahn submitted his proposed 1998-99 budget to the mayor’s office on Monday, calling for $3 million in new programs that include the creation of a division to handle all police department legal matters and expansion of Hahn’s anti-gang unit.
While Mayor Richard Riordan had asked department heads to trim their budgets, Hahn’s aides said it was “impossible” to cut costs and still provide the city’s legal services.
The $63.5-million budget request calls for a police division with six new attorneys who would help the current litigation team deal with the growing number of claims and lawsuits filed against the Los Angeles Police Department. While judgments and settlements have declined, Hahn said, “More needs to be done to get those costs down.”
In his budget, LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks has requested an assistant city attorney to handle all LAPD matters.
Hahn also is seeking to more than double his gang unit--from seven prosecutors to 14 and from two support staff members to six. The goal, Hahn said, is to use nuisance abatement laws to pursue more gang injunctions across the city.
The city attorney’s office, the largest municipal attorney’s office in the country, had a $57.3-million budget this year.
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