The city controller cannot conduct performance audits of other elected officials' offices, a Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday, effectively siding with City Attorney Carmen Trutanich in his feud with City Controller Wendy Greuel.

Judge Mark Mooney's ruling, which had been expected, does not necessarily end the long-running legal battle because Greuel intends to file an appeal.

"I think any elected official would want to defend their authority and right to do their job," Greuel said. "I think the voters of the city want and expect their controller to be able to do the job to audit programs, whether they are in a department or an elected official's office."

The feud began when former Controller Laura Chick tried to conduct a performance audit of the workers compensation program in the office of former City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. He sought to block the effort, arguing that under the City Charter she did not have the authority to conduct a performance audit of a program in another city official's office.

Mooney agreed with that argument, saying the controller's office is limited to financial, but not performance, audits of other elected officials.

When they took office, Greuel and Trutanich had been expected to end the fight, but instead it continued, as they argued over issues such as the controller's office hiring outside attorney Fred Woocher to represent it, rather than relying on the city attorney's own lawyers.

Greuel said she plans to continue having Woocher represent her, even though his fees were one of the key reasons Trutanich refused to drop the fight.

Deputy City Attorney Valerie Flores, who argued the case, said they were pleased to see "clarity as to how the City Charter reads."

"We hope this will prevent the needless spending of city resources," Flores said.

If Greuel does file an appeal, Flores said the City Attorney's office will meet with the City Council to determine whether to further fight the case. Greuel hopes for an opportunity to have the case argued before a higher court.

"The good thing is the appeal court does not consider the lower court ruling," Greuel said. "We are able to argue from scratch on this."

Chick criticized the ruling, in part because it takes a dispute between the controller's and city attorney's offices and essentially expands it to include every major city office.

"I am extremely disappointed that the voters' will has been thwarted," Chick said in a statement. "However, this is only round one. I am pleased that Controller Greuel will appeal the ruling on behalf of the taxpayers of Los Angeles.

"In fact this decision makes this worse than before. Not only does it preclude performance audits of programs in elected officials' offices, it also bars them in all offices including Finance, Treasurer, City Clerk, Chief Legislative Analyst and Chief Administrative Officer."