Immigrant Rights Heats Up Mayoral Debate : Politics: Candidates’ responses to a question about non-citizens draws a raucous response from the audience at a forum.

It was supposed to be a forum on bread and butter issues such as jobs and housing but a question about the rights of non-citizens became the flash point in the first debate among candidates running in the 1993 Los Angeles mayoral election.

Eight out of a field of 19 likely candidates had come to Los Angeles City College on Saturday to attend a forum on issues ranging from public safety to land planning. It began as a tepid afternoon colloquy until someone asked a question about giving illegal immigrants the right to vote in municipal elections and the audience angrily came to life.

As if on cue in a city aching from racial tension, an issue bound to arouse ethnic sensitivities made its way quickly to the top of the campaign agenda.

Candidate Julian Nava, a professor of history at Cal State Northridge and former ambassador to Mexico, provoked a chorus of boos when he proposed granting limited voting rights to people who are not citizens.

“Many cities in our country permit resident aliens, non-citizens, to vote in municipal elections,” Nava said. “I favor it strongly, controversial as it may be, because the best way to bring them into the mainstream is to allow them to participate in government.”

The booing was so vociferous that it interrupted Nava and caused one person in the largely Anglo audience to characterize the crowd as “racist.”

The raucous moments allowed the candidates to emphasize an emerging theme of the campaign: that the city is in deep trouble and needs fresh, unifying leadership.

“L.A. has changed,” said City Councilman Michael Woo, one of three councilmen in the race. “No longer are we a symbol of hope and opportunity,” Woo said. “But now across the country and around the world we have become a symbol of urban despair, urban violence, urban anger. And so the hottest moments we have seen during this afternoon’s discussion have reflected the kind of anger and discord that is out there in the city.”

But another candidate made himself, at least briefly, the darling of many in the crowd by arguing that the city can no longer cope with the problems created by illegal immigration.

“I am a very strong supporter of legal immigration,” said Tom Houston, 47, a lawyer and former deputy mayor. “What I am not a supporter of is illegal aliens. What I am not a supporter of is continuing to provide ongoing benefits, whether they are welfare, medical care, whatever, if we have to pay for them.

“It’s like overloading the lifeboats of a sinking ship,” Houston said. “Our schools are suffering. Our welfare offices are overloaded. And we can’t compete for jobs with people who are willing to work for under the minimum wage.”

Sponsored by PLAN LA, a citywide federation of homeowner and neighborhood groups, the forum was attended by more than 200 people, mostly invited members of PLAN LA.

Besides Nava, Woo and Houston, candidates present included Councilmen Nate Holden and Joel Wachs, state Assemblyman Richard Katz, lawyer and businessman Richard Riordan and businessman Nick Patsaouras.

With the campaign just getting under way, the forum gave the candidates an early opportunity to introduce themselves to an audience of middle-class neighborhood activists who tend to be among the most politically involved in the city.

Several candidates sought to make an impression by harping on one or two issues.

“What L.A. needs is a true leader, not another politician,” said Riordan, who like many of the candidates is trying to distance himself from the political status quo at City Hall.

The 62-year-old venture capitalist and longtime member of city commissions, stressed his main campaign themes:

“We first have to make the city safe,” Riordan said. “We cannot tolerate wives afraid to go to shopping centers or children afraid to go to school. We cannot tolerate a city that is unfriendly to business.”

Katz, 42, who has traditionally looked to labor for support, talked about rebuilding the city’s job base by favoring firms that invest in the area.

“I would give a preference in the bid process based on the number of people they would hire in Los Angeles, based on the taxes they pay in Los Angeles, based on the goods and services they buy in Los Angeles as an incentive for companies to invest in L.A.”

Woo, 41, who has been campaigning longer than any rival, opened his remarks as he frequently does, by reminding people that he was the first member of the City Council to call for the resignation of former Police Chief Daryl F. Gates after the police beating of Rodney G. King.

The first member of a Chinese-American family to be born in this country, Woo stressed his ties with the city’s newcomers and his commitment to build bridges among various groups in the city.

“I am going to run a campaign that does not pit one ethnic group against another,” he said.

Wachs, 53, who has been a councilman longer than any of the other mayoral contenders from the council, referred to his plan to enhance the power of communities throughout the city. The plan calls for neighborhood councils that would have a say on policy matters ranging from local real estate developments to the city budget.

Wachs also cited his accomplishments over two decades on the Ciy Council.

“I am proud to be the first person to introduce a law and get it passed that prohibited discrimination against people with AIDS. . . . I am proud to have stopped the spraying of malathion when the state refused. . . . I am proud that I have shown that good planning and reasonable growth can work in a district as it has in mine.”

Holden, 63, also focused attention on his many years of government service, saying that his four-year stint in the state Senate combined with more than a decade as a top aide to county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn makes him the best to unify the city.

Patsaouras, 48, discussed the highlights of his plan to rebuild the city by concentrating schools, parks and affordable housing along bus and rail routes.

The forum revealed that there are a number of ideas that are popular with most or all candidates. Several called for increasing the size of the Police Department. At least two, Riordan and Patsaouras, advocated the use of transportation corridors to build parks and affordable housing. Several, including Woo, Riordan, Holden and Patsaouras, have endorsed term limits for the mayor and council members. Houston said he would serve only one term if elected mayor.

Katz joined Woo in encouraging the city to use its clout to stimulate private investment in poor neighborhoods.

“Use the power of the city and the city’s deposits to influence the lending institutions to create loans and job opportunities in the high unemployment areas,” Katz said. “We ought to use the leverage we have as a city to encourage banks to put their money and our money where people need jobs.”

But it was the issue of immigration that repeatedly aroused the audience, triggering boos and catcalls as several candidates later spoke in favor of legalized street vending, a form of commerce that has pitted established shop owners against the operators of pushcarts who tend to be Latino immigrants.

Nava, 65, again found himself the target of boos when he launched into a defense of legalized vending.

“I think it is an opportunity for small-business people to earn a living and to serve the public as long as proper sanitation and other factors are controlled that would have a negative impact on the community. I am opposed to the fact that the only place you can buy something in Los Angeles is from a supermarket, a great big center owned by Asians or owned by Europeans or owned by Latin Americans. You must restore small-business operations in Los Angeles or otherwise you will end up being poor.”

From the audience came catcalls and the voice of one woman saying: “You bigot. You bigot. You bigot.”

Other candidates jumped in on both sides of the issue. Holden drew applause when he said he was opposed to street vending. But Woo got himself in trouble with the crowd when he proposed allowing a maximum of two street vendors per block and only in selected parts of the city.

When Wachs sought to bypass controversy by proposing that each community decide the issue for itself, he got little sympathy from the restive audience and found himself called a “weasel” by one woman.