Riordan’s Complex Personality Clouds Crystal Ball

One of the great challenges facing City Hall reporters is understanding Mayor Richard Riordan’s complex nature and how it will affect the people of Los Angeles.

One old friend of Riordan’s told me the mayor is the most complicated person he’s ever met. After 10 years, the friend confessed, he still hasn’t completely penetrated the Riordan persona. I haven’t known Riordan nearly that long. But I’ve seen enough of him to know he is different from the gray, cardboard figures who dominate today’s bleak political landscape.

I suppose there are some people who would object to political analysis based on the officeholder’s personality. Serious students of public policy might say it’s an example of journalistic superficiality, the sort of material that appears in People magazine.

But as I followed the mayor around last week, I could see how the Riordan personality and policy will become intertwined in the next month as he begins his battle to reshape city government.

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On CNN’s “Larry King Live” Wednesday night, for example, I saw two Riordans.

The first was the insider, Establishment man. King had asked him about the 2 1/2-year sentences U.S. District Judge John Davies gave to Stacey C. Koon and Laurence M. Powell in the Rodney G. King beating case.

“Jack Davies and I went to law school together,” Riordan said. “In ’52 he won a gold medal in the Olympics in the breaststroke. Jack is a very bright and caring person.” Then he went on to say he didn’t want to comment on the verdict.

Actually, they weren’t fellow law students. Davies received his undergraduate education at the University of Michigan, followed by UCLA law school. Riordan studied law at Michigan. But that’s not the point. As I listened, I was struck by the conventional nature of Riordan’s view, that the gold medal and a degree from a respectable law school somehow validated decisions Davies might make as a judge decades later. It reminded me that Riordan is a member of L.A.’s Establishment, which is a club that few people are permitted to join.

A few minutes later, Riordan came out with a statement that was as surprising as his earlier one had been conventional.

As the conversation turned to L.A.’s declining economy, Riordan told King that Los Angeles had been overly dependent on the defense industry. “We had this tremendous, artificial inflation due to the aerospace industry. . . . You had the rest of the country subsidize Los Angeles to build things to kill people . . . and pay people $25 to $40 an hour. It was a fool’s paradise.”

This is an astounding view of the Southern California aerospace industry considering Riordan’s Republican politics and big business background. It sounded like rhetoric from a peace movement lefty.

Actually, the sentiment reflected another important part of Riordan’s character--his belief in liberal Roman Catholic theology and its opposition to the arms business. Riordan’s religion and his ties with Catholic social justice philosophy are as important in understanding his nature as knowing about his wealth and his Old Boy network ties.

The next day, I saw another facet of the mayor’s personality. Talking with reporters after a speech to a business group in Burbank, he launched into an attack on City Hall lobbyists. Specifically, he took on an important aspect of the lobbyist system: the unpleasant fact that certain lobbyists have special clout with certain council members because of campaign contributions and other favors. In other words, if you want the support of one of those council members on something big, you’ve got to hire the lawmaker’s favorite lobbyist.

“I hate it, I hate it with a passion,” Riordan said. “It creates an atmosphere that is very dangerous. I won’t tell you what I mean by that. You guys can figure it out.”

This sounded like a change of heart from Riordan who, as a lawyer-campaign contributor, could pull strings in City Hall and the County Hall of Administration as well as anyone in town. It certainly was a put-down of council members whose help he’ll need soon.

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This newfound hostility toward City Hall’s cozy lobbyist system will be tested in an early fight--Riordan’s effort to force the airlines to pay higher landing fees at Los Angeles International Airport. The airlines have hired influential lobbyists to carry their resistance into the City Council, hoping to benefit from a system that Riordan says he hates “with a passion.”

As for his philosophy of social justice, that will come into play when the council begins debate over the revised budget he will submit next month. Riordan’s main goal is to put 3,000 more cops on the street. To accomplish that, he will probably have to chip away at some of the many programs the city sponsors for the poor.

Sorting this out will be a complicated process for Riordan and for those watching him. It would be much easier to predict the outcome if Riordan were a simpler man. But it would be a lot less interesting.