Reformers Bend a Bit, Score One

Political reformers don’t like the messy kind of politics practiced by the pros. The give-and-take, the deal-making, the compromise--these real-world political lubricants make them uncomfortable, as if their hands have been soiled.

That question of whether to play or drop out of the game was a dominating theme of Los Angeles’ reformers long struggle to persuade the City Council to approve a new ethics law, and public financing of political campaigns. For a time, it looked like the Los Angeles reformers would go the way of so many before them: They would express outrage and go home, beaten.

The struggle over the ethics package had evolved into a form of class warfare, one of the most bitter, divisive debates seen in City Hall in years. Council members, pragmatic politicians all, rebelled at lectures from high-tone reformers, many of them from upper-class Brentwood, the symbol of elitist reform.

The reformers never were all Brentwood. The coalition included members of the heavily Latino United Neighborhood Organizations from East Los Angeles and the mostly black South Central Organizing Committee. These activists can be just as unbending as other political reformers, and they also know how to play tough. This latter skill would prove crucial.

On Tuesday, the reformers finally gave in and did what it took to win. They followed the advice of their street-smart ally, Councilman Richard Alatorre: “You have to give a little, and you have to take a little.” As a result, the council voted to put its ethics package on the June ballot, along with public financing of city political campaigns. They gave some, they took some. They made deals.

The deals cut by chief reformer Geoff Cowan--chairman of the ethics commission, an idealist and a resident in Brentwood--and his allies tell much about their new understanding of the City Hall political process. And about the process itself.

Deal I was the Pay Raise. Council President John Ferraro insisted he would not support new ethics rules, or public financing, unless it was in the same ballot proposition as a proposed pay raise for council members, Mayor Tom Bradley and other city officials. But he wouldn’t say it himself. He wanted the words to come from Cowan’s lips.

And so on Tuesday, it did. Alatorre, delivering Ferraro’s message, asked Cowan during the public debate if he supported combining the pay raise with the ethics and campaign finance proposals. “Although in our report, we didn’t propose it, if you link them together, I will strongly support it,” Cowan replied. That was enough.

Deal II was The Capture of Nate Holden.

Even his best friends--even he--admit Holden is a hard man to pin down in a deal. He keeps changing the terms. But Holden is susceptible to political muscle, and that’s what the reformers used. UNO representatives met with him one night, and those from SCOC cornered him on another and both groups reminded him of how many votes they can deliver in his district.

Don’t get trapped in a discussion with these community organizers, trained in the tough tradition of Chicago’s late Saul Alinsky, a maestro of community protest movements. As Holden learned, you never win. Tuesday, he kept his word and voted for the ethics package. His movement to the ethics side was the key to victory.

What transpired on Tuesday in a seven-hour episode of Let’s Make a Deal doesn’t mean victory for the public finance-ethics package. The voters must be persuaded by June to go along with the package. And, in fact, inclusion of the pay raise proposal in the ballot proposition may well doom it.

What the reformers have going for them in Los Angeles, however, is their broad coalition. After the vote, representatives of UNO and SCOC told me they support the 40% pay raise for council members, and they’re going to campaign hard for it. These are the strongest political organizations in the poorer parts of Los Angeles.

It will be up to the other reformers, of course, to deliver the Westside and San Fernando Valley. The strongest opponent of the ethics package, and its public financing provisions, was Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who is expected to campaign against it. And his political adviser is Michael Berman, who likes his politics played rough.

The word earlier this week was that Berman already had taped a radio commercial against the pay raise. Cut to an announcer, asking in grave tones whether listeners really thought Bradley deserved a pay raise. Hearing that, Bradley, whose personal financial dealings touched off the whole ethics mess, attempted an inoculation. As his part of the deal-making, he promised the council that he would donate his pay increase to charity.

The reformers won a big round on Tuesday. They also have a long, tough campaign ahead.