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Nate Holden Does Things His Way--Stirs Resentment

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Times Staff Writer

When Nate Holden was celebrating his election to the Los Angeles City Council in June, the first city official at his side was Councilman Gilbert Lindsay who clasped hands with the victor, raised his arm like a triumphant boxer and made a political promise.

“Nate and Gil are going to shake up City Hall,” Lindsay vowed as the crowd cheered the two allies.

Today, only 2 1/2 half months after settling in as one of 15 City Council members, Holden has indeed rattled some powerful folks at City Hall--and one of them is Lindsay, whose present assessment of his colleague is a far cry from their Election Night solidarity.

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“First he started out on his left foot. Then he was on his right foot. Now, he’s on no foot at all,” Lindsay said.

Lindsay is still bitter about Holden’s attempt to pull the controversial trash-to-energy project known as LANCER out of Lindsay’s Public Works Committee. The project in Lindsay’s district was doomed and efforts were under way to dismantle its financing. But Holden, who had campaigned against the project, accused Lindsay of dawdling on LANCER until he could find a way to revive it.

Holden went to Lindsay’s committee, lashed out at the members for failing to move against the project and then walked out. Later, he sent a letter to Lindsay threatening to get the full council to wrest the matter from his control.

Robert Gay, Lindsay’s top aide, said his boss received the letter only after Holden had distributed it to the press, a move that has noticeably cooled the relationship between the two councilmen.

And Lindsay, who had resisted strong pressures to back Holden’s opponent in the election, is having second thoughts about his ability to work with Holden.

“Now, the councilman wonders if he made a mistake,” a close Lindsay adviser said.

The falling out between Holden and Lindsay is only a piece of what appears to be a crumbling relationship between Holden and others in City Hall.

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During his first months in office, the council newcomer has managed to stir resentment from not only his colleagues but from high-level bureaucrats and lower-echelon workers. Stories abound in City Hall about Holden arguing with parking attendants, badgering city commissioners, hounding city departments and undercutting fellow council members.

His style has been described variously as abrasive and contentious, overbearing and pompous. He is viewed, by some, as confrontational at best, and rude and bullying at worst.

Holden’s supporters call the 58-year-old official--with his penchant for handcuff tie clips and pinstripe suits--a feisty councilman who already has pushed through a moratorium on mini-mall development in his 10th Council District and added police services for the community.

But his critics call him the same egocentric campaigner who lost six of the eight times he ran for political office and who, as a one-term state senator, enjoyed being called “the senator” long after he left Sacramento. One city official quipped that Holden now “is a man who wants to be emperor.”

Some City Council members, who first spoke favorably when asked for an on-the-record comment, immediately denounced Holden when given anonymity. But some critics, like Councilwoman Joy Picus, were outspoken.

“I am appalled at the way Nate berates city employees,” Picus said. “He already is legendary at City Hall. He has a reckless style. And I don’t see anything productive coming out of it.”

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Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores recalled once seeing Holden marking the name of everybody who voted against him after he lost on a particular issue. Flores said Holden then approached each member on his list to remind that person that he would not forget the vote.

Joke Taken Seriously

Flores related that when she jokingly reminded Holden that her name should be erased because she had sided with him on an earlier vote, Holden thought seriously for a moment and then carefully removed her name from his list.

“It shows the vindictiveness that I don’t think we have room for or that should be present on the council floor,” Flores said.

Councilman Richard Alatorre, who like Holden had served in the Legislature, acknowledged that Holden has alienated many in City Hall.

“I don’t think people are used to his up-front style of doing business,” Alatorre said. “But he’ll have to step back and see if the manner that he’s doing things is effective. He has to be the judge of that.”

For his part, Holden has no apologies: “I’m not running any nursery school. I ask tough questions of bureaucrats. Hey, politics is a tough business.”

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Holden dismisses some of the stories about him as half-truths and petty complaints. For example, he said, the story about his disagreement with the parking attendants stemmed from his inability to get a permanent parking spot in the City Hall garage. “They kept moving me from one parking spot to another,” he said.

Story Called Fanciful

A story that he had chased away two Department of General Services employees who needed to run cable through his office ceiling for a computer system in the floor above was fanciful, he said. He merely questioned the cost-effectiveness of installing such a system, he said, when the council office above his would soon be changed. “I told them to go back and check with the department,” he said. “It didn’t seem efficient.”

Holden admits he is demanding of city officials, but he insisted it is only because his constituents in Southwest Los Angeles have suffered for years from poor city services. In a style reminiscent of Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, for whom he worked after leaving the state Senate in 1978, Holden said he constantly makes lists of things to do--like street repairs and tree-trimming--during his regular drives through the district. Then he peppers city departments with his letters and phone calls.

‘Rather Frustrating’

“I’ve found the first few months rather frustrating because it’s difficult to get a quick response from the city,” he said.

Incurring resentment from city bureaucrats may be one thing, but angering your colleagues on the City Council may be politically risky.

“He is cruising for a bruising,” one council member said. “People are just waiting to give him a cold shower, and when they do, he won’t forget it.”

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Fire Tragedy

One incident that drew the wrath of his colleagues occurred as the council was dealing with a tragic fire two weeks ago at the Nickerson Gardens housing project in Watts. The fire, which claimed the life of a 10-month-old child, apparently was started by candles used to light the house after the city Department of Water and Power had shut off electricity for the non-payment of an $85 bill.

The housing project is located in Flores’ district, and she had been working on a plan to require public housing officials to try to resolve unpaid bill disputes. But on the day she was to introduce it in the council, Flores was stunned to learn that Holden had already held a news conference to push his own plan.

Urged to Speak Out

“That has never happened in the six years I have been on the City Council, and I don’t recall any other council member who has had a similar situation happen to them,” she said.

Holden said supporters had urged him to speak out on the issue. “I didn’t see this as a district crisis. I see this as a citywide crisis,” he said.

On the council floor, Holden has also exchanged particularly harsh words with Councilwoman Gloria Molina over her proposal to contribute $10,000 to assist refugees who may have been targeted by Salvadoran death squads reportedly operating in Los Angeles.

When Holden argued that the people were against such a plan, Molina turned to him and said derisively: “I don’t know what kind of special meter reading that you have that you know the political will of the residents of the city of Los Angeles.”

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Ferraro Tolerant

Council President John Ferraro, who at times has kidded Holden for speaking so much on the council floor, admitted that Holden has had rough moments with his colleagues. “That’s just his nature,” Ferraro added. “That’s his style. I think he means well.”

Holden, meanwhile, discounts his troubles at City Hall.

“Look, Nate Holden is a guy they want to pick on when he doesn’t agree with them 100% of the time. . . . I’m really disappointed that these tough politicians have such thin skins,” he added.

Holden said he has no intention of changing a style that he says is designed to produce results from a reluctant bureaucracy. And he showed a reporter a raft of letters and phone messages that he said have encouraged him to continue what he has been doing.

Despite defeating Homer Broome Jr., a friend of Mayor Tom Bradley, for his council seat, Holden said his relationship with the mayor has been a good one. But he added that his election, as well as other recent council changes, clearly signal a voter restlessness with the political establishment.

“The people in the city of Los Angeles are not happy with the way things are at City Hall,” Holden said. “If I were to come and be a mirror image of what has already been here. I will be getting notice that they will be changing me, too.”

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