Crime & Safety

Mayor's Aide Delivers Biting Criticism of City Attorney Over LAFD Information

The mayor's chief counsel, Brian Currey, demands the department resume releasing all detailed, real-time information about dispatches to fires.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's top lawyer Thursday aggressively attacked the city attorney's office for allegedly instructing the Los Angeles Fire Department to withhold detailed information about the department's responses to emergency calls.

In a stinging letter to Chief Deputy City Attorney William Carter sent Thursday  afternoon, the mayor's chief counsel, Brian Currey, demanded the department resume releasing all detailed, real-time information about dispatches to fires, including the addresses of incidents and the ages and genders of those injured.

Currey also gave a lengthy legal analysis about why it is appropriate for the fire department to release the information.

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"Unfortunately, however, your office has issued a series of opinions taking the contrary view about the public's right to detailed information relating to the Fire Department's response times," Currey wrote.

"We refuse ... to let the City -- and the public -- be held hostage in this way," he wrote.

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The letter concerns a move last month by Fire Chief Brian Cummings to stop releasing incident locations and injury information to the public.

At the time Cummings cited an oral opinion from City Attorney Carmen Trutanich's office that the LAFD risked violating the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, a medical privacy law enacted in 1996.

The move drew outrage from news organizations and lawyers specializing in media law and first amendment cases. Chatsworth Patch published a story informing readers of the significant impact it would have on our ability to respond to emergencies:

The move also prompted the mayor to order the fire department to resume releasing the information until Trutanich's office issued a written opinion on the matter, which it did on March 23 and 30.

City attorney's office and fire department officials both declined to share those written opinions.

Currey said his staff  "did not find a single reported case or Attorney General opinion supporting (the city attorney's) interpretation of the law."

He also blasted Carter for allegedly telling the fire department its members could be criminally liable if they release the detailed emergency response information.

Currey said the letter should be considered by news organizations as encouragement from Villaraigosa's office to file a lawsuit against the city in Los Angeles Superior Court to compel disclosure of the information the media seeks.

"The courts shall have the final word," Currey said to close his letter.

"Obviously, it's very disappointing to receive such a letter from a staffer to the mayor," Carter told City News Service. "We believe the letter is factually and legally inaccurate and misleading."

All of the legal precedents cited in the letter were prior to 2009, when the federal government made changes to HIPAA, Carter said.

Carter said the laws on whether or not to release the information do not provide a "cookie cutter" answer, adding that the city attorney's office provided advice to to the fire department and mayor's office on "how the data can be released without violating the privacy of the persons receiving medical treatment."

He declined to cite specifics, but said they included California Public Record Act requests.

"The city attorney's office only provides legal advice," Carter stressed. "We don't control the data, the resources deployment, the staffing. That's all within the discretion of the fire department and the mayor's office."

Carter said he was confused by the letter given that Villaraigosa and Trutanich met today and had a "very good conversation" about the issue.

"That's the kind of letter you receive from a staffer. It's not a legal document, and we react professionally to a political letter," Carter said.

-- City News Service


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