Tensions on L.A. council

For some members of the Los Angeles City Council, the ruckus over a recent visit by the Airbus A380 jumbo jet crystallized a gnawing tension between them and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

The mayor, celebrating the plane’s inaugural trip to Los Angeles International Airport, toured the craft with the media in tow as four council members on the runway below were momentarily blocked from joining the entourage -- and later complained mightily about it.

“The plane holds 550 people, and yet I didn’t think it was going to hold the mayor and a couple of council members at the same time,” Councilwoman Janice Hahn quipped later.

In the grand scheme of governing the nation’s second-largest city, the incident may not have amounted to much, but it spoke to a persistent strain between Villaraigosa and some on the 15-member council.

And that strain could soon reach far beyond City Hall offices as the council and mayor grapple with many pressing issues, including upcoming cuts in the city’s budget, downtown’s nascent resurgence and efforts to expand the Los Angeles Police Department.

During his first year in office, Villaraigosa enjoyed a prolonged honeymoon with the council, rarely encountering resistance to his initiatives. Last year, council members passed his budget unanimously, though it included a trash collection fee increase.

But the fragile relationship has wobbled in recent months as the council and mayor clashed over plans to clean up skid row, a $2.7-million discrimination settlement for a firefighter who was fed dog food by his co-workers, and a council plan to boost residential development downtown by selling “air rights” that could be used to get around density limitations.

The relationship will be tested even more this month as Villaraigosa unveils his budget for next year -- a financial blueprint that is expected to greatly rein in spending and hinder any initiatives the council may have in mind.

Villaraigosa, who sat on the council for two years before he was elected mayor in 2005, has built a coalition of reliable votes on the council, including Jack Weiss, Wendy Greuel, Dennis Zine and Jose Huizar, and to a lesser extent Ed Reyes and Bill Rosendahl. Most of the others have been willing to break with the mayor when they saw fit.

The mayor said he respects the council’s authority, even if he bumps heads from time to time with individual members. As for last month’s Airbus incident, Villaraigosa called it a misunderstanding for which he later apologized.

“I have as good a relationship with this council as any mayor has ever had,” he said -- a sentiment echoed by some of its members. “I don’t feel the tension with them.”

Council President Eric Garcetti said some amount of strain is a natural byproduct of a governance system that divides power between the council and mayor. Still, Garcetti said minor squabbles have not interfered with the ability to effectively conduct city business.

“This is a city government working together,” Garcetti said. “We’re coexisting harmoniously.”

Privately, however, elected officials and aides in both camps tell a different story. Some council members voice jealousy over the media attention Villaraigosa gets, and the mayor sometimes grows frustrated with the council for not thinking in bold strokes.

Relations between mayors and councils historically have been uneven in Los Angeles.

Mayor James K. Hahn’s cooperation with the council deteriorated during a budget fight halfway through his four years in office and never rebounded.

Mayor Richard Riordan was far less diplomatic, and often feuded openly with council members. And as he discovered, agitation from the council could have consequences. During the debate over reform of the city charter, the council checked Riordan’s desire to create an elected reform commission by appointing one of its own. That move vastly complicated the attempt to forge a new set of city rules.

Villaraigosa’s recent council difficulties stem from individual differences of opinion and ego-driven clashes.

Defying the mayor’s wishes, for example, the council last fall voted against settling a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union over a city effort intended to better control where homeless encampments are established on skid row.

About that time, the council placed a $1-billion affordable-housing bond issue on the November ballot even though the mayor thought the timing might be wrong.

When the measure failed, some council members suggested privately that it might have fared better if Villaraigosa had stumped harder for it. The mayor said he put energy into the campaign, and his office saw the loss as proof that he was right to delay.

Also in November, six council members tried to override the mayor’s veto of the $2.7-million discrimination settlement for firefighter Tennie Pierce but fell short after heavy lobbying by the mayor’s office.

And last month, Villaraigosa surprised even some of his most hard-core allies on the council by vetoing legislation intended to help downtown developers build more lofts and condos while raising money for new infrastructure projects.

Villaraigosa said he wanted only to ensure that he would have an adequate say over the direction of downtown growth, adding that the veto had nothing to do with his sometimes turbulent relationship with Councilwoman Jan Perry, who represents much of downtown.

Many council members say the veto caught them by surprise.

“I think that Antonio started with the best of intentions in working with us,” Councilman Greig Smith said. “But I think his staff really dropped the ball on this.”

Perry, who has clashed occasionally with the mayor in recent months, said she nonetheless has a healthy respect for him -- characterizing their relationship as “very upfront, very candid and very dynamic.”

Other council members say that Villaraigosa and his staff sometimes do a poor job of communicating their priorities and plans -- and that the mayor’s office has become an imperial fortress. One council member, for example, learned that Villaraigosa was vetoing the firefighter settlement only after the mayor’s office issued a news release.

But others praise the mayor for reaching out and sharing the spotlight. “On any issue related to a committee I chair or in my district, this mayor has been very inclusive,” Councilwoman Greuel said.

And Weiss, the mayor’s closest ally on the council, said the attention that Villaraigosa commands has been good for the city.

“If that means it deprives others of their opportunity to be in front of the camera, that seems a small price,” said Weiss, who is running for city attorney in 2009. Villaraigosa is chairman of his campaign.

Some on the council say Villaraigosa is learning how to better handle them, noting changes in his behavior.

Last year, the mayor unveiled his first budget on the steps of Van Nuys City Hall -- part of Councilman Tony Cardenas’ district -- without inviting Cardenas to the event or even telling him about it.

But things have changed. Cardenas and the mayor have met privately several times in the last six months to discuss city business.

“I’m probably communicating more with the mayor now than during the two years he was on the council,” said Cardenas, who also served with Villaraigosa in the state Assembly. “We’re listening to each other more.”

And sometimes, Cardenas said, they will still disagree.

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duke.helfand@latimes.com

steve.hymon@latimes.com

Times staff writers Patrick McGreevy and Jim Newton contributed to this report.