Alarcon Hires Riordan’s Press Secretary : Government: Annette Castro will act as chief City Hall adviser. Observers say the move will help the councilman get his message out.

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon on Friday announced that he has hired Mayor Richard Riordan’s press secretary and confidant, Annette Castro, to be his chief City Hall adviser. Some observers see the move as a bid to bring new media and political savvy to an office that at times has seemed adrift.

In an interview, Alarcon praised his current staff but said he expected Castro to coordinate his legislative and media programs and provide his office with valuable experience in dealing with the federal government and with Riordan, who can play a key role in Alarcon’s legislative agenda.

Prior to joining Riordan’s campaign in November, 1992, the 29-year-old Castro, a native of Whittier and USC graduate, had worked two years for former U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston and was a scheduler for President Clinton’s campaign in California.

“Annette is going to bring some political capabilities to Alarcon’s staff that have been missing so far,” said political consultant Richard Lichtenstein.

Castro will be paid $61,400 a year--the same salary as Alarcon’s current chief aide, Lupe Vela, who will now head up Alarcon’s field operations. Alarcon said he expected her to begin work in two or three weeks.

Castro becomes the latest member of Riordan’s original City Hall team to depart, joining Deputy Mayor Jadine Neilsen, who left to become a private consultant; Deputy Mayor Al Villalobos, who resigned under a cloud of news stories about his gambling and business misadventures; and press aide Tom Kreusopon, who now works for Los Angeles City Councilman Rudy Svorinich.

Castro developed a close rapport with Riordan while guiding the multimillionaire businessman with no media smarts through his 1993 campaign for mayor.

On Friday, Castro said she was looking forward to working with the 39-year-old Alarcon, who was elected in June to represent the 7th District, the San Fernando Valley’s most ethnically diverse and economically troubled district.

“His staff has done a great job and I want to work with them as a team to maximize the councilman’s visibility and bring about real change for his district,” Castro said.

Since taking office, Alarcon, the Valley’s first elected official of Latin descent, has shown a readiness to break with the Valley’s traditional Anglo-suburban agenda by, among other initiatives, shepherding an ordinance to legalize street vending, exploring the possibility of setting up a redevelopment area in Pacoima and quietly refusing to back a plan to break up the Los Angeles Unified School District.

But some City Hall watchers have said that Alarcon tends to be bureaucratic and careful. “Let’s face it, he’s a product of City Hall,” said one observer who asked not to be named.

In fact, Alarcon has spent much of his adult life at City Hall, working in the Personnel Department and for former Mayor Tom Bradley. That orientation, it has been said, has been a handicap to Alarcon, robbing him of a certain freshness of vision.

Another observer said that Castro’s hiring means that Alarcon “sees that his product has been sitting on the shelf for eight months and it’s not selling as well as he’d like, and now it’s time to re-market it. But it’s to Alarcon’s credit that he recognizes the need to change.”