Council Leader Names Panel Picks

The new president of the Los Angeles City Council, Eric Garcetti, unveiled his committee picks on Friday, providing a glimpse of which colleagues are gaining and losing traction in City Hall.

The biggest shift involved Tony Cardenas, who lost his seats on three influential committees: commerce, planning and budget.

He was moved to the head of the information technology committee, where he will soon be renegotiating the city’s contracts with its cable providers.

Janice Hahn, whose district includes the port, takes over the commerce committee, which was renamed trade, commerce and tourism.

That committee is a highly visible perch and one that has helped past chairs raise substantial political donations from businesses with interests at the port and Los Angeles International Airport.

Oversight of the Department of Water and Power was also transferred from commerce to the council’s environment and energy panel, which Jan Perry will continue to run.

When Cardenas was elected to the council in 2003, his protege Alex Padilla -- then council president -- put him on the three prime committees, drawing grumbles from colleagues who said Cardenas got too much too quickly.

Cardenas, a former assemblyman, also may have run afoul of Garcetti when he challenged his recent successful bid for the council presidency.

Cardenas declined to comment, but released a statement Friday: “Although it can drive my colleagues crazy, my engineering habits and attention to detail have forced bureaucrats away from rhetoric and into action.”

Garcetti said Cardenas was not being punished.

He said Cardenas also received a seat on the housing committee and would chair the ad hoc panel on gang violence.

“Tony Cardenas is one of the toughest and more experienced negotiators the City Council has,” Garcetti said, “and there is no more important task for this city’s information technology program than getting a fair deal for consumers in our renegotiations with the cable companies.”

Most committees retained their chairs.

Changes in leadership included education and neighborhoods (Padilla); housing (Herb Wesson); intergovernmental relations (Greig Smith); public works (Bill Rosendahl); and rules and elections (Garcetti).

The transportation, environmental and housing panels were expanded from three members to five.