Permit System Makes L.A. Like a Communist Country, Riordan Says

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan lashed out Thursday at the City Hall he now runs, denouncing its system of permit requirements for business as being communistic and blasting lobbyists as a very dangerous symptom of government gridlock and remoteness.

“It’s like being in a communist country,” Riordan said of the multiplicity of city permits sometimes required of companies doing business in Los Angeles. He spoke in Burbank before an appreciative audience of 500 owners of small manufacturing firms attending a meeting of the California Leadership Council.

“The city is run on conditional-use permits,” Riordan said. “You have to beg to get anything (from government).”

Later, in remarks to the press, Riordan also attacked City Hall’s lobbying industry, which he said thrives in part on the confusion and red tape of city government.

“I hate it, I hate it with a passion,” Riordan said. “It creates an atmosphere that’s very dangerous.” Unfortunately, Riordan said, businesses must often “hire lobbyists to make things happen” at City Hall because the government is otherwise so inaccessible.

“You need a godfather (at City Hall) if you want something,” he said heatedly. “Any day at City Hall you can find (lobbyists) wandering about,” he said.

Despite his harsh words for them, registered lobbyists and their clients have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Riordan’s campaign committee, a special mayoral transition account and a newly formed Riordan political fund for miscellaneous expenses. Among the more prominent donors is the downtown law firm of Latham & Watkins, which represents a variety of interests at City Hall.