Bradley Vows Help for Poor in His 5th Term

Tom Bradley, vowing “nothing, nothing will be permitted to distract our attention or sap our energy,” was inaugurated Friday as mayor of Los Angeles for an unprecedented fifth term while government investigators pursued the details of his personal finances.

Not directly mentioning the investigations being conducted by federal, state and city agencies, Bradley set out for himself an ambitious agenda highlighted by a pledge to end a growing disparity in the city between rich and poor.

“Los Angeles cannot permanently exist as two cities--one amazingly prosperous, the other increasingly poorer in substance and in hope,” the mayor said in his inaugural address.

A friendly, but not overly enthusiastic, crowd of more than 2,000 on City Hall’s 1st Street lawn watched in bright sunshine as the 71-year-old mayor delivered a speech that was as crucial as any he has given.

Writing a History

Dogged by revelations of potential conflict of interest, hurt by an unexpectedly narrow reelection victory, preoccupied by the need to arrange his financial records for the investigators, the mayor used words aimed at writing a history that will record him as civic hero, rather than as a man ending his long public life under a cloud.

“I am determined that no difficulty will deflect us from doing the vital work of making Los Angeles more prosperous, more livable and more just,” said the mayor in a voice that, while not dramatic, showed more emotion than usual.

“The headlines will come and go; the 30-second sound bites will be heard and then fade and be forgotten; what will remain long after we are gone, what will count in the ultimate balance, are the doors of opportunity that have been opened, the air that has been cleaned, the neighborhoods that have been given new life, a generation that has been given new hope.”

“All of this--and more--will be the real test of our success or failure,” Bradley said.

Then, in a passage that drew substantial applause, Bradley said, “that’s the kind of mayor I have to be. I say that because that’s the kind of person I am. All my life, whenever I have encountered obstacles, whenever the hills have gotten steeper or the head winds have risen up, I’ve just run harder--and I don’t intend to stop now.”

Bradley took note of the fact that he was a historic figure in Los Angeles--the city’s first black mayor and Los Angeles’ longest-reigning chief executive. “In a way, this fifth inauguration is unprecedented,” he said, “but so was my first inauguration.”

Since late in his reelection campaign against Councilman Nate Holden in the spring, the mayor has been beset by disclosures about his personal finances. Among them were revelations that he was paid to serve on the board of directors of a savings and loan firm and on the board of advisers of a bank that did business with the city. The disclosures, and later investigations, soon extended into other areas, including the U.S. Justice Department examinations of his stock dealings.

Eager to Support Him

City Council members seemed eager to support the mayor. Public opinion polls have shown substantial constituent discontent with the quality of life in Los Angeles and the lawmakers, in interviews, have expressed fears that a weakened mayor and a strife-torn City Hall would hurt them as well as Bradley.

Even before the mayor’s speech, Council President John Ferraro, who ran against Bradley in 1985, spoke warmly of the mayor in his remarks. Afterward, he said, “If the mayor proposes something, I don’t think the political cloud (over Bradley) will enter into it if it is something good. If it is not good, there will be opposition, and there are those who will interpret it as being caused by the political cloud.”

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who had planned to run against Bradley this year but dropped out, said, “I am ready to work with him and I am eager to work with him.”

Yaroslavsky said he did not think Bradley put his troubles behind him with the speech. “I don’t think any one speech does anything,” he said. But he added that “his personal troubles are now in the hands of agencies much more powerful than ours, and we have no control over them and neither does he. Right now, the city needs us working together. . . . I am ready to roll up my sleeves and work in partnership with him, and I think the rest of the council is, too.”

Councilwoman Joy Picus said she was impressed by the mayor’s laying out of an agenda. “The fact that he said ‘this is what I want to achieve’ is important,” she said. “The issue is (whether he is) really going to move ahead with what he wants to do. . . . It is easier said than done.”

City Atty. James K. Hahn, in charge of some of the most important parts of the investigation, said he thought “the speech was powerful, upbeat, focusing on the future, not defensive. He is not letting those so-called political troubles get to him. He is in focus and in charge.”

City Controller Rick Tuttle, whose auditors are examining other aspects of the affair, called the address “a forward-looking speech.”

Bradley’s emphasis on the need to help the poor was a departure for him. Although he is a liberal Democrat who has sponsored programs for the impoverished, his policies generally have been built around the concept that the best way to help the poor is to help business create jobs. As a result, he has been increasingly criticized by advocates for poorer blacks and Latinos, and for the growing immigrant community, as being too pro-business.

Cites Limitations

But in his speech, he said he recognized that boosting business does not help the poor trapped by lack of education, incapable of filling increasingly complex jobs and forced to live in crime-ridden neighborhoods.

“This city, like the nation, is living with an increasing polarization of incomes,” Bradley said. “A rising tide no longer lifts all boats. While America has prospered, while our GNP has gone up, so has the poverty rate. In Los Angeles, it now stands at 16%--one in six of our people--with entire neighborhoods outside the circle of affluence, filled with untapped human potential and immeasurable human pain.”

While Bradley conceded that “no city can solve this problem alone,” he spoke of several initiatives, some of them previously announced.

He pledged to expand his program of after-school care for youngsters and said he will soon propose a plan to drive drugs and crime out of the city’s public housing projects.

He reiterated his intention to fight to obtain $2 billion more in downtown redevelopment revenues to build low-income housing. Aware of political and legal obstacles to his plan, Bradley said, “I will settle for nothing less.”

Bradley also said he will offer programs to channel economic growth to heavily Latino East Los Angeles and to South-Central Los Angeles, with its large black and Latino population. Both areas are poor, with large numbers of immigrants from Mexico and Central America.

On the environment, the mayor said he will soon announce a new plan to improve the water quality of Santa Monica Bay and reduce pollution there from storm drains.