Latino Banker Named to Deputy Mayor Post

Alfred R. Villalobos, a wealthy Latino investment banker known as an able fund-raiser in GOP circles, was named deputy mayor for economic development Tuesday.

The appointment of Villalobos, a divorced, 48-year-old Tarzana businessman and lifelong Republican, immediately drew bipartisan praise from the Latino civic community, including Councilmen Richard Alatorre, who supported Mayor Richard Riordan, and Mike Hernandez, who backed Riordan’s foe in the recent runoff, Mike Woo.

“He’s my kind of Republican,” said business consultant and former mayor Tom Bradley aide, Art Gastelum, a Democrat. Villalobos is someone who can balance the needs of business with homeowner and environmental groups, he said.

Villalobos is one of five deputy mayors appointed by Riordan. The fifth-generation Los Angeles resident has earned a national reputation as a key fund-raiser--and donor--among the Republican Party’s growing Latino membership.

Last year, he gave the maximum $25,000 to federal candidates and raised many times that amount. In October, he netted $75,000 in a single night at his 4,500-square-foot home during a GOP fund-raiser that featured a live talk from then-President Bush on a 60-inch TV.

“He’s been one of those people really waving the flag in the Hispanic community,” said Republican consultant Paul Clarke. “He’s also a lot of fun, very outgoing and likes to entertain a lot.”

Elephant statues, elephant paintings, even an elephant portrait in stained-glass decorate Villalobos’ sprawling hillside home, evidence of his enthusiasm for the Republican Party.

His loyalty is well-placed. His first big break came in 1968, when he was appointed president of the Nixon Administration’s newly formed National Economic Development Assn., a $50,000-a-year post. Villalobos, who was 23 at the time, took a leave from Loyola Law School to take the job and did not return.

“I was lucky,” said Villalobos, an A-average student who did not miss a single day of school while attending Gompers Junior High and Fremont High schools in Los Angeles.

Villalobos was charged with directing efforts to help Latino entrepreneurs raise capital to form banks and savings and loan institutions. He also learned enough about the investment business to start up his own firm, ARVCO, in 1973.

“We became the largest processor of government-secured loans in the country, doing about $1 billion a year,” Villalobos said of the federal agency. “After that I helped start a couple of banks and then started doing private business deals.”

Villalobos, who has an undergraduate degree in political science from Whittier College, said he is a third-generation Republican. His grandfather owned markets in Los Angeles and his father was a meat wholesaler.

“My grandfather, my father and I were always close,” Villalobos said. “They would always tell me I would some day go into business for myself.”

Before that, however, Villalobos said his father recommended that he spend some time in public service. After graduating from college in 1965, Villalobos spent a year working as a Los Angeles County deputy probation officer.

Villalobos said that during high school, while working as a copy boy and part-time sportswriter for the Herald-Examiner newspaper, he considered becoming a professional writer. One problem, though, he said: “Money.”

“Now, I write from time to time for clients,” Villalobos said. “I wrote a book on insurance company formation--how to qualify and start insurance companies in California, Arizona or Delaware. It’s a very expensive book, $25,000 a copy, so I don’t sell many.”

Villalobos said he has brokered hundreds of transactions, buying and selling businesses such as TV stations, restaurant chains and manufacturing plants.

Los Angeles investment banker Lloyd Greif, of Grief & Co., said: “I know Dick (Riordan) and if he’s got a high regard for his skills, then he’s probably a decent investment banker, and an investment banker is ideally suited for the job.”

Villalobos was appointed in March by Gov. Pete Wilson to the state Personnel Board, which administers the civil service system.

That job pays $27,956 a year and involves twice-a-month meetings.

Soon after taking the post, Villalobos was designated by the Personnel Board to sit as its ex-officio member to the Public Employees Retirement System board. The latter panel oversees $75 billion in pension fund assets.

According to a financial disclosure statement Villalobos was required to file as a PERS board member, the new deputy mayor reported that his ARVCO company was worth more than $100,000 and that he owned two properties--his home in Tarzana and a building in Lynwood that’s leased to the El Molcajete Restaurant and Market.

Until Tuesday, when he resigned, Villalobos also had been vice chairman of a Long Beach-based health care company, Pacific Health Corp., that owns five small community hospitals in the Southland and manages physician groups.

Villalobos said he did not know what his new City Hall salary--$89,500--will be, “but it will be a substantial reduction” from his current income.

He said he is closing down his firm, which he operated out of his home, while working for the city.

Villalobos, who has three grown children, said his professional experience makes him especially qualified to tackle efforts on behalf of his new boss to create more jobs in the city.