Fresno’s GOP Mayor Balks at Schwarzenegger’s Agenda

Passing out monogrammed cigars, introducing career politicians to his celebrity friends, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has turned a raft of elected officials from both parties into star-struck accomplices in moving his agenda.

But scattered holdouts remain, and the most unabashedly outspoken may well be the last person anyone would expect -- a burly Republican who campaigned for Schwarzenegger during the recall, who a decade ago was a regular in a prime-time TV series and who counts a few Hollywood stuntmen as mutual friends: this city’s mayor, Alan Autry.

Where most of the state’s political class lined up behind the governor’s $15-billion borrowing plan approved by voters March 2, Autry balked, describing Proposition 57 as a rushed and indefensible ploy to “borrow your way out of bad times.” He also bristles over the governor’s plan to pluck from local government $1.3 billion in revenue in hopes of averting projected state deficits.

Adding it up, Autry’s aides estimated that the governor’s budget would potentially lop $4.5 million from Fresno’s finances -- a sum that covers 48 police officers and firefighters, among others.

“At the end of the day we could end up with $15 billion worth of debt, higher taxes, decimated local treasuries and ... downgraded” bond rating, he said of California’s prospects.

In a political atmosphere where some Democratic leaders in the capital are openly swooning over the new governor -- swapping stories of having met Danny DeVito in Schwarzenegger’s home -- Autry said that his colleagues were surrendering to Schwarzenegger’s personality, and refusing to analyze his program with the critical rigor the job demands.

“There’s an element of fear here that is silencing voices,” he said in an interview at his City Hall office. Trains hooted nearby as he flipped through oversized charts attesting to the strains on Fresno’s finances. “If we don’t have the guts to hold him accountable for what he says and does, we’re not doing our state much good or Arnold Schwarzenegger much good -- as a governor or a person.”

Autry’s candor has already exacted a cost. He said that four phone calls he’s placed to the governor have gone unreturned. Twice when Schwarzenegger came to the Fresno area last month to campaign for Proposition 57 and a companion measure that would require balanced budgets, Autry did not get an invitation -- a portentous snub in the political world. The reason should be obvious, sniff the governor’s political aides.

“I’ve never heard of John Kerry being bent out of shape over not being invited to a Bush event,” said Todd Harris, a spokesman for the Schwarzenegger campaign that resulted in passage of both ballot measures.

Autry, wearing a navy pinstripe suit with an open shirt collar and black boots, doesn’t believe he missed much. He summarized the governor’s campaign style:

“Come into town but make sure it’s a tightly scripted, fixed situation,” he said. “You only have invited guests that will stand up and give you the questions you want delivered.”

Bluntness carries risks. Friends warn the mayor that he may be sabotaging his career.

“People say you’re not going to get elected to anything,” he said. “I said, ‘ ... I may not get another job in Hollywood because of this.’ I know that’s on the line.”

If reprisals came, Autry said, he would not be worried. He is in a safe spot politically, having won reelection earlier in the month with 73% of the vote. The San Joaquin Valley has rarely prevailed by “playing the game ... which is ‘Don’t make waves, don’t squawk, go along,’ ” he said. And in any case: “I took it seriously when I raised my right hand and took an oath to protect this city from all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

He pauses for emphasis. “Foreign and domestic. I’m not saying our governor is an enemy of the cities.... But bad, ill-thought-out policy can be a more destructive enemy of local government than any individual.”

None of this is sitting well with the governor’s office, where Autry is steamrolling the competition for the status of most despised mayor.

“We have found Mayor Autry to run hot and to run cold,” said Rob Stutzman, Schwarzenegger’s communications director. “He was effusive in thanking the governor” for restoring to local governments the money lost when the car tax increase was repealed. “He’s been absolutely vicious in his criticism since.... I’ll let the people of Fresno conclude if the mayor is being helpful to their future or not.”

On that score, some have already made up their minds. City Council President Brad Castillo said he wanted to set up a meeting with Schwarzenegger to explain that he and others don’t endorse Autry’s message. The mayor’s “bad-mouthing” may jeopardize state aid controlled by a governor who is “only human,” said Castillo, a Democrat who was defeated in a reelection bid earlier this month and who has sparred with Autry.

“Our mayor is a take-it-or-leave-it, my-way-or-the-highway mayor,” Castillo said. “And that’s the attitude he’s taken with the governor, which to me is totally wrong. When you’re talking about a governor who is the most popular individual in the state of California, you don’t play that game. You have to play along.”

He added: “We have some really high unemployment in the area. We have some serious transportation issues. We have air quality issues.... This to me is the time to be opening doors to establish good relations with a governor such as this. And it seems to me that our mayor is closing those doors.”

Sen. Charles Poochigian (R-Fresno) said he assumed Autry understood “how his conduct would be annoying to the governor and many in the Legislature.”

Among his fellow mayors, Autry is something of a contrarian. By a 3-1 ratio, the League of California Cities last month endorsed the governor’s borrowing plan.

Some mayors worry that the state will renege on promises to repay them for the quarter-cent local sales tax being used to pay back the bonds -- fitting a pattern, they contend, of the state balancing its budget at the expense of local governments.

Autry emerged as Proposition 57’s most steadfast skeptic, according to the league, with most mayors embracing the bond measure with the view that “we could be worse off without the bond than we are with the bond,” said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the league.

At some level, the mayor and the governor would seem to be natural allies. No one in California politics can claim a biography remotely like Schwarzenegger’s. But the Fresno mayor might come the closest.

Both are 50-something Republicans and former actors. Autry played quarterback for the Green Bay Packers in the mid-1970s (“I had a great career going until they put me in” the game, he said). He appeared in movies and played the police captain, Bubba Skinner, in the CBS television series “In the Heat of the Night.”

Walking through Capitol hallways on his occasional trips to Sacramento, Autry gets the sort of gushing attention reserved for celebrities -- if not quite on Schwarzenegger’s scale.

People call out, “Hey, there’s Bubba,” said Ruth Quinto, Fresno’s controller.

Autry said he liked the governor personally. In 2002, he supported Schwarzenegger’s initiative promoting after-school programs. At an early recall campaign rally in Fresno, Autry cast Schwarzenegger in biblical terms, calling him a “savior” who was bringing to California “the good news.” Following Schwarzenegger’s victory, Autry was made a member of his transition team -- after Autry complained about the lack of San Joaquin Valley representation.

“Love the person. Hate his policies,” Autry said.

He manages a fair Schwarzenegger impression, issuing rapid-fire commands in a booming baritone: “Do it. Don’t scrutinize it. Just do it! Do it! Pass it!”

Borrowing from David Letterman, he put together a top-10 list summarizing his quarrel with the governor and read it aloud for a visitor. A sampling:

No. 3: “Said we would have an open government with local input -- has operated exactly the opposite of that.”

No. 2: “Said he would [compensate] the cities and counties when he cut the car tax, but he didn’t. We had to raise hell as local officials -- found some obscure executive order that allowed him to” do it.

Autry took office three years ago, having promised to serve only one term. He changed his mind after the candidate he had hoped would succeed him bowed out of the race to become pastor of a local church.

Fresno cannot afford any more raids on local revenue, he said. At the end of the school day, students spill onto unpaved paths that lie ominously close to the road because the city cannot afford sidewalks. Some neighborhoods lack streetlights, curbs and drainage systems -- a product of decades of strained budgets. He is aware that many political allies believe the prudent tactic is to keep quiet. But he’s not about to listen.

“Do I go along with this so I can have a Cuban cigar or meet Danny DeVito?” he asks. “Or do I do what’s right for the people in our city and our most impoverished neighborhoods?”