Memo challenges mayor's authority to order layoffs

Chief Deputy City Attorney Bill Carter contends in a memo apparently making its way around City Hall that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's order to lay off 1,000 city employees has no teeth under the city charter. Villaraigosa can fire department heads who got their jobs by mayoral appointment, but he can't make them lay off workers, Carter argues. "He certainly cannot compel it in this office," he says of the City Attorney's office, which of course is headed by its own elected official. The mayor's lawyer says Vilaraigosa has no intention of firing workers who report to City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, but expects cooperation from City Hall department general managers.