A Lesson in Compromise Over Conflict

When Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg was in the middle of the recent budget fight, she remembered something her mother once told her:

“Don’t always assume you have all the answers and that other guy is just stupid. Because frequently, you don’t have all the answers.”

As a result, the liberal first-year legislator, threading her way through the thicket of City Council egos, helped win modest increases for parks, libraries and other social services despite a budget weighted heavily in favor of Mayor Richard Riordan’s promise to put more cops on the street.

On Tuesday morning, we sat in her second-floor City Hall office and talked about this small victory. Goldberg is a warm, friendly woman who received rough lessons in political combat on the Los Angeles Unified School District board.

“I learned after a very bad start in my first year in office in the school district that you are much better off working things out with your colleagues,” she said. “Winning and losing is not the best way to get something done. Make people not feel they’ve lost, but there’s more than one approach to achieve similar ends. And that was what I was trying to do.”

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Her biggest challenge involved a controversial $5-million mayoral request for Hope in Youth, an anti-gang organization.

Despite its innocuous name and noble purpose, Hope in Youth has become synonymous with political trouble.

The organization is strongly backed by Protestant, Jewish and Catholic religious leaders, including Cardinal Roger M. Mahony. In addition, Hope in Youth musters support in poor, gang-ridden neighborhoods from several community organizations based in Catholic parishes. These groups are affiliated with the Industrial Areas Foundation, which organizes poor people to raise hell with the rich and powerful, whether they run big corporations or are elected officials.

Riordan was an early Hope in Youth backer. I remember when he was running for mayor last year, he appeared before the Industrial Areas Foundation group in the San Fernando Valley. When the organization leaders demanded that he give Hope in Youth $2.5 million in city funds if he were elected, he said no. Boos echoed through the Cal State Northridge auditorium until Riordan, looking smug as a rich uncle, said he’d make it $5 million.

Hope in Youth operates from churches and synagogues, with four-member teams that counsel the entire family, rather than just the gang member. And rather than concentrating its efforts in one area, as do many anti-gang organizations, Hope in Youth is extending throughout L.A. County.

Riordan’s request was soon in trouble.

The size of the enterprise and the big appropriation drew opposition from older anti-gang organizations who wanted the money for themselves.

There were also religious and racial factors. Although Hope in Youth is a multiracial organization, Latinos predominate. Thus African American/Latino rivalry became part of the dispute. And although leaders of several religions are involved in Hope in Youth, the Catholic Church is the dominant force. This turned off council members worried about the church having too much power.

Accountability was another factor. Critics demanded proof of what Hope in Youth had accomplished since last year, when the council gave it $2.5 million. Hope in Youth said it was too early to provide the reports that council members demanded.

Finally, a number of council members didn’t like the heavy lobbying by Hope in Youth advocates. Although council members put up with lobbying from the worst sort of campaign-contributing sleazebags, let a priest make a phone call for Hope in Youth and they’re offended.

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What Goldberg proposed was a solution that her mother might have devised.

Rather than joining Hope in Youth’s fierce critics on the council, she urged her colleagues to give the organization a chance to compete with other anti-gang groups for the money. “I am not hostile to Hope in Youth,” she said. “My motion said . . . you can have more money if you win the competition.”

Her proposal passed despite Hope in Youth’s opposition.

In the end, Mayor Riordan may veto her proposal, along with the Goldberg measures to increase parks, library and social service funding. But maybe not. For she gets along pretty well with the mayor. “I think there are some people who have wanted me to go out of my way to be critical of him. I don’t see any value in that, although I was certainly critical of things in his budget. But I assume goodwill on his part and I haven’t seen anything to make me think otherwise.”

To a hard-ass politician, this may sound like a wimp talking. But to me, it sounds like smart politics.