A City Council Rookie Makes His Mark

After two days of tired speeches from Los Angeles City Council veterans debating the Christopher Commission report, it was a raw rookie who made the most important point.

Mike Hernandez, elected just last month, has rookie written all over him.

He’ s a big, friendly, slightly pudgy man of 38 who looks uncomfortable in his new surroundings. With his blue blazer hanging over the back of his chair, he leans forward at his desk as if he doesn’t want to miss a word of the council proceedings. His attempts at speechmaking are awkward and embarrassed, usually limited to a few words endorsing a colleague’s proposal.

Despite his parliamentary inexperience, Hernandez comes to City Hall from a background that should be extremely useful in the new reality of L.A. politics.

Before his election, Hernandez was in the bail bond business, specializing in springing immigrants locked up for sneaking into the country.

That work, along with several years of grass-roots Eastside political organization, has given him a feel for the rapidly changing streets of Los Angeles, now 40% Latino, 37% Anglo, 13% African-American and 10% Asian.

Hernandez, representing a district that encompasses the poorest barrios of Central L.A., spoke of the need of ensuring that all the city’s ethnic minorities have a voice in the long, painful process of reorganizing the Police Department, a process triggered by the LAPD beating of Rodney G. King.

The Christopher Commission argued that blacks and Latinos are the main victims of police brutality: “The changing demographic profile of the city--the explosion of multiple cultures within the LAPD’s jurisdiction--has heightened the need for sustained efforts at finding solutions to this troubling problem.”

Another councilman who discussed the relationship between demographics and the Police Department was Joel Wachs, one of Police Chief Daryl F. Gates’ staunchest supporters. We talked at the side of the council chamber during a slow portion of the debate.

When Wachs first ran for his San Fernando Valley seat, he campaigned among two kinds of voters--Jewish Anglos and non-Jewish Anglos. That was the demographics of the Valley 20 years ago. Now, he represents areas that are solidly Latino and Asian. “None of them look like the same people who lived there 20 years ago,” he said. “All that has to be reflected here.”

Similar changes are occurring all over the Valley.

Ernani Bernardi’s East Valley district is 63% Latino, a 20% increase over the last decade. The percentage of Anglos in Hal Bernson’s North Valley territory has dropped from 83% to 71% in the past decade, with Asians comprising 12% of the population and Latinos 14%. The Anglo percentage in Joy Picus’ West Valley district has also dropped.

Picus, Wachs and Bernardi supported most of the Christopher proposals.

But that wasn’t the end of the fight.

A final and politically crucial vote was on whether to put the proposals before voters in a special election next March or wait until June, adding them to a ballot that also contains high-profile presidential and Senate primaries.

A March election would draw a smaller crowd, tending to be more well-to-do, conservative and white. The June election will enjoy a bigger, broader turnout.

It was on this question where Hernandez emerged as something more than a mumbling rookie.

Hernandez stood at his desk in his rumpled shirt sleeves and, in a strong, clear voice, objected to the March special election.

“We’ll be calling a special election when we know that not everyone will vote,” Hernandez said. “We must encourage participation . . . . I think it’s important that we start thinking that way in the city.”

His remarks were loaded with historic irony. His district, the 1st, was created only after the U.S. Justice Department threatened Los Angeles with a Voting Rights Act suit for disenfranchising Latinos in a broad belt running from MacArthur Park to Mt. Washington. After it was created, Gloria Molina was elected to represent it and she organized a massive voter registration drive, bringing new voices to the political process.

When Hernandez was elected, the voter turnout reached a surprisingly high 25%.

Hernandez wants that sort of participation, and more, when the city decides how to reform its Police Department. In a council vote where every vote counted, he came down in favor of a measure to put the Christopher Commission reforms on the June ballot. It passed 8 to 6.