Opinion No.

KAMALA D. HARRIS Attorney General MARC J. NOLAN Deputy Attorney General THE HONORABLE ROBERT WESTMEYER, COUNTY COUNSEL FOR THE COUNTY OF NAPA, has requested an opinion on the following questions: 1. When a district attorney authorizes a county counsel to prosecute an Unfair Competition Law (UCL) action to enforce a county ordinance, may the district attorney also delegate his or her own independent authority to exercise administrative subpoena powers? 2. If not, may the district attorney share with the county counsel the results of the district attorney's own investigation into an alleged county ordinance-based UCL violation where the suspected violation forms the basis of the county counsel's authorized UCL prosecution? *Page 2 CONCLUSIONS 1. When a district attorney authorizes a county counsel to prosecute an Unfair Competition Law (UCL) action to enforce a county ordinance, the district attorney may not also delegate his or her own independent authority to exercise administrative subpoena powers. 2. The district attorney may, however, share with the county counsel the results of the district attorney's own investigation into an alleged county ordinance-based UCL violation where…