Laguna Woods mayor stays out of media glare

That Antonio Villaraigosa, what a live wire. You might even call him supercharged, if you get my drift. Let’s just say the Los Angeles mayor, who has acknowledged an affair with a TV reporter, might want to refocus.

Maybe take a long walk with Milt Robbins.

This being the news business, you’ve heard of Villaraigosa.

This being the news business, you probably haven’t heard of Robbins, the mayor of Laguna Woods.

Call him the anti-Villaraigosa.

Robbins doesn’t get his name in the papers very much. Probably is not going to be explaining away a personal scandal. Probably won’t have the word “controversial” ever attached to his name.

“You’ve got to remember, I’m 86 years old,” he says Friday afternoon.

Knowing that for every yin, there’s a yang, I figured that for every Villaraigosa, there’s got to be a Robbins. So, I telephoned him for a chat.

This just in: Laguna Woods is no Los Angeles. The average age of its 18,000 residents is 77. The city basically encompasses the former Leisure World. One of Robbins’ pet projects now is to expand the boundaries -- away from the golf course -- where residents can use golf carts for transportation.

Robbins has been married for 63 years to Marilyn, a woman he met at the University of Pennsylvania. Three nights a week, they go “circuit training” at the gym, where they work out on a series of exercise machines for 40 seconds each. That’s from 6 to 7 p.m. Then, it’s off to grab a bite to eat and back home.

A typical night means reading or watching TV, often at the same time. Robbins likes the humorous commentary of Jon Stewart on Comedy Central and a lot of public TV. But not Charlie Rose.

“Too late,” he says of the 11:30 p.m. interview program. “That’s OK for you guys who gallivant.”

How about weekends? “Sometimes, we’ll play nine holes of golf,” he says.

The venue? “Right here. Where else can I play nine holes for $4? You can’t even buy a bucket of balls for that.”

It seems that Robbins doesn’t have the L.A. mayor’s ambition or sense of grandiosity. “I get the honor of being called the Honorable Milt Robbins,” he says. “I laugh every time they use it.”

Robbins makes no apologies for not being a pistol. Besides, the guy can’t help it: He’s a retired certified public accountant.

Not exactly a profession known for zany comedy, eh? “Depends on how you look at it,” Robbins says. “Sometimes things get funny, but for the most part, it’s strictly no fun.”

He’s not setting himself up as any moral exemplar, but he’s not happy about Villaraigosa’s public embarrassment. After all, the men are mayoral fraternity brothers, at least for this year while it’s Robbins’ turn in the City Council’s rotation.

“I do have problems with it,” he says, “because I was always raised to be very ethical. Before we moved out here to California, I served as chairman of the rent stabilization board in our community for 15 years. The landlords hated me, and the tenants hated me.”

Translated, that meant he called them as he saw them.

I ask if he’s offended by Villaraigosa’s confession to infidelity. “I just don’t think that sits well for a public official,” Robbins says. “It happens, but you don’t do these things if you’re in the public eye.”

Any wild behaviors of his own? “My favorite story,” he says, “is that before dinner, I enjoy a Scotch. When I go for my annual physical, my doctor says, ‘Do you smoke?’ I say not for over 25 years. He says, ‘Drink?’ Yeah, a drink or two for dinner. He says, ‘The American Medical Association recommends one.’ Then he says, ‘Milt, don’t change your brand.’ ”

Outsiders might think of Laguna Woods as a sleepy little town, but there’s work to be done, Robbins says. “We run a subsidized taxi service. From here to John Wayne Airport, it runs between $30 and $35. But if you come to City Hall and you’re a resident, we’ll sell you a voucher that gets you there for $15. To the Performing Arts Center or South Coast Plaza, same thing.

“We’re concerned about electronic waste. If you have an old TV set and can’t get rid of it, we have a service that will come in and take it out of the house and dispose of it properly.

“And we just started something new -- I don’t know if you’re aware of it -- environmentalists keep complaining about people who flush their old medications down the john. We now have a program where if you bring your no longer usable capsules, either prescription or over-the-counter, put them in a baggie, bring it to City Hall -- and if you don’t have one, we’ll give you one -- we’ll see that it’s incinerated properly without destroying the fish life in the ocean.”

That’ll keep a mayor busy.

Robbins doesn’t say it, but I will: Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.

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Dana Parsons can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at

dana.parsons@latimes.com.