A Non-Slick Successor for Snyder

In the 17 years during which he has been on the Los Angeles City Council, Arthur K. Snyder has never been known for doing things quietly or easily. Now it appears that his recently announced decision to resign from office will cause as many problems as it solves.

In a letter to Council President Pat Russell, Snyder said that he had grown weary of the constant stress of public life and would step down on July 1. No one in City Hall is quite sure what to do in the meantime, however. The city Charter requires that a special election be held to select his replacement, but the process cannot legally begin until Snyder actually steps down. That will be well after the city has already spent money on the regular municipal elections scheduled for next April and June. If Snyder were concerned about the city budget, he would move up his departure so that a special election could be consolidated with June’s voting.

But Snyder has never been one to put the public’s interest ahead of his own. His tenure onthe council was not good for Los Angeles. Too often Snyder tried to use his council position for personal financial gain, playing as fast and loose with political fund-raising and his outside business deals as as he did with the city cars that he wrecked with embarrassing frequency.

One important benefit that will come from Snyder’s departure is a chance for the 14th District to elect a more constructive and thoughtful representative to the council. Because the district is 75% Latino, Snyder’s departure offers the city’s large Latino population a special opportunity to elect one of their own to that body for the first time in 20 years. It is to be hoped that the Latinos who run to replace Snyder offer the district a campaign of real ideas and substance, and not just an intramural competition to see who among them is better connected to the city’s established Latino political leaders.

The 14th District will be no better off if Snyder’s replacement is just another slick, ambitious politician who happens to have a Spanish surname.