Wachs Urges Freeze on New City Taxes : Politics: Mayoral candidate says L.A. needs an economic plan before levying tariffs. Much of the councilman’s financial package is similar to ideas offered by others.

Mayoral candidate Joel Wachs on Friday urged an immediate citywide freeze on new business taxes and regulations until City Hall adopts a plan to revitalize Los Angeles’ sagging economy.

At a news conference, the veteran councilman also unveiled his own 17-point economic stimulus package. “Los Angeles must become a job-friendly city with a pro-business attitude,” Wachs said.

New business taxes and regulations cannot be enacted effectively until their impact on business is known and a city economic plan is drafted, Wachs said, explaining his call for a freeze. Otherwise, the city could inadvertently undermine its larger goals, he said.

But many of Wachs’ proposals--to streamline bureaucracies, create job retraining and mentor programs, spend transit dollars on local firms and reform workers’ compensation laws--have been identified and prescribed by others, including his top rivals for the mayor’s job.

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who chairs the council’s Commerce and Economic Development Committee, called Wachs’ plan an amalgam of ideas already under review by his panel as it forges its own blueprint for jump-starting the city’s economy.

Still, Ridley-Thomas welcomed Wachs to the economic debate. “The more the merrier,” he said. “It is good to see council members focusing on this issue.”

During his 21 years on the council, Wachs has become best known for his championship of the arts, gay rights, rent control and his efforts to protect his middle-class San Fernando Valley constituencies from encroaching mini-malls and unwanted hillside developments.

Wachs’ interests were evident Tuesday.

Talking about his proposal to enlist successful Los Angeles residents from a variety of vocations to act as mentors for disadvantaged youths, Wachs drew on an example from the arts, citing sculptor Robert Graham’s hiring of seven youths to help him make replicas of his work for resale.

Wachs’ 17-point economic development plan also called on City Hall to stimulate small and medium-size high-tech companies, to consolidate the three city agencies involved in economic development into one super-agency and to reform the city’s much-maligned educational system.

Wachs has emerged as a proponent of breaking up the huge Los Angeles Unified School District in an effort to make it more responsive to student and parent needs.

Wachs conceded that he and many of his City Hall colleagues have not been strong voices for economic development in the past.

Until the late 1980s, Wachs said, city leaders focused on controlling growth in a robust economic climate. “The needs have changed as times have changed,” Wachs said.

Still, Wachs said he has a track record on economic development. Last year, Wachs loudly challenged the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission’s award of a $120-million rail car contract to Sumitomo Corp. of America, a subsidiary of a Japanese firm, on the grounds that it would not provide enough local jobs. Wachs also helped initiate the city’s North Hollywood redevelopment project in 1979.

Wachs finished a distant third among mayoral candidates in a poll conducted earlier this week by KFWB radio and KCAL (Channel 9) Television. The poll asked 606 registered voters who would get their vote “if the election were held today.” Councilman Michael Woo finished first with 24%, Councilman Nate Holden second with 10% and Wachs third with 8%. Assemblyman Richard Katz was fourth with 6%.

Investor-lawyer Richard Riordan and Councilman Ernani Bernardi tied with 5%. Former Deputy Mayor Linda Griego and Julian Nava, a former ambassador to Mexico, each received 3%. Another ex-deputy mayor, Tom Houston, got 2%. And businessman Nick Patsaouras and lawyer Stan Sanders each received 1%.

The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4%.