L.A.’s chief deputy mayor to resign Sept. 30

Nearly a year after he became one of two top advisors to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Chief Deputy Mayor Jay Carson said Thursday he would resign Sept. 30.

Carson, 33, joined the mayor in September 2009, just as he elevated “gang czar” Jeff Carr to the job of chief of staff and set out to refocus his office in his second and final term.

A former press secretary to presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, Carson had a hand in a major shakeup of Villaraigosa’s staff, including the departure of some officials originally hired by the mayor.

H. David Nahai, general manager of the Department of Water and Power, resigned under fire in October. Cecilia Estolano, the top executive of the Community Redevelopment Agency, departed two months later.

Deputy Mayor S. David Freeman, who handled environmental matters, was replaced by First Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner, who is also interim head of the Department of Water and Power. Planning Department Director Gail Goldberg left last month.

Carson, who earned $194,000 annually, said he had promised Villaraigosa that he would stay a year. “The mayor brought me in to effect specific change in his office. I worked as hard as I could at his direction to make that change,” he said.

During his short tenure, Carson recruited Beutner for the post of “job czar” and worked to revamp the mayor’s business and education teams. He also focused on the mayor’s plan to speed up construction of his proposed subway to the sea.

After Carson pushed out members of the mayor’s business team, some in Villaraigosa’s office argued that he was too eager to oust city employees. Still, he received praise from Beutner, who said Carson had “a very clear voice” about ways to make the city better.

“A lot of people did like Jay,” he said. “They have had different views with him on policy things, but that’s par for the course.”

Carson joined the mayor after working for Shangri-La Industries, which worked with the mayor last year on an unsuccessful effort to attract an Italian rail car company to the city. Before Shangri-La, Carson was press secretary for the presidential campaign of then-Sen. Clinton and communications director for the Clinton Foundation.

david.zahniser@latimes.com