Newcomer Feuer Ruffles Feathers on Council

Mike Feuer is a man in a hurry.

Even before workers had delivered his office furniture in September, the newly elected Los Angeles City Councilman had taken on powerful City Hall lobbyists by proposing a law to prohibit firms and individuals who launder campaign contributions from getting city contracts.

The following month, he challenged Mayor Richard Riordan by introducing a motion that would reduce the mayor’s powers to appoint members of the city’s Ethics Commission.

During his first six months in City Hall, the 37-year-old councilman has been on a warp-speed schedule to make good on a slew of campaign promises and to introduce about two dozen laws intended to shake up the way City Hall does business.

A progressive lawyer who was elected to complete two years of an unfinished council term after Zev Yaroslavsky resigned to become a county supervisor, Feuer said he feels under the gun to accomplish as much as possible before his term is up.

“I don’t have the luxury of having a learning curve,” he said.

Although most colleagues praise his energy, drive and intelligence, his efforts have generated resentment among some City Hall veterans who say he sometimes comes off as a self-righteous “do-gooder,” particularly in his drive to impose tougher ethics regulations.

It is still too early to tell if any of that resentment will hurt his ability to get things done.

“I think one of the hardest things to do for a new member is to focus because you charge in and see so many things you want to do,” said one council member who asked to remain anonymous. “He feels impelled to address all the problems.”

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Councilman Hal Bernson, a 16-year veteran of the council who has had several run-ins with the Ethics Commission, said Feuer has proposed reforms without the benefit of experience. He added that too many rules can often keep honest lawmakers from doing their jobs.

“I think he needs to learn a little bit more about the system before he tries to fix it,” Bernson said.

He also resents the implication made by Feuer’s motions that City Hall lacks integrity.

“You don’t come in with the attitude that all your colleagues need to be reformed before you know what is going on,” Bernson said.

Feuer, a Harvard-educated attorney who ran the Bet Tzedek legal aid clinic for eight years, doesn’t apologize for ruffling feathers but said he makes every effort to work with his colleagues when he launches a new initiative.

“I respect my colleagues a great deal but I came to the job with the knowledge that I have a brief time in which to make an impact,” he said.

Some in City Hall applaud Feuer for challenging the status quo.

“You can’t make everyone happy,” said Councilman Joel Wachs, a veteran lawmaker who said he met similar resentment when he first took office. “Your goal is not to be king of the senior prom.”

Said Councilwoman Laura Chick: “He’s an impatient man. City Hall needs more impatient men.”

Feuer won the council seat after a bruising campaign against Yaroslavsky’s wife, Barbara, who outspent Feuer and benefited from the support of Riordan, as well as her politically powerful husband, Zev.

The prize was the politically active 5th Council District that encompasses West Los Angeles, Sherman Oaks, and parts of Studio City, Van Nuys and North Hollywood.

During his campaign, he made ethics reform and improving police protection his top priorities. Thus far, he has forged ahead in meeting his campaign promises.

In September, Feuer introduced a motion prohibiting the city from doing business with firms or individuals that violate city ethics laws, such as laundering money. The ban could be imposed for up to four years.

The proposed law made good on a campaign promise he issued when he blasted the council for doing business with the firm that runs the Los Angeles Marathon after ethics officials fined it for laundering money.

After city officials raised concerns that the ban would keep the city from doing business with the best-qualified firms, Feuer modified the measure, allowing the council to waive the ban under certain circumstances.

In September, he also proposed a law banning lobbyists from hosting fund-raisers for “officeholder” accounts that are used by elected city officials to pay expenses related to their official duties.

Neither law has received final approval by the council; both are expected to generate opposition from some members who, like Bernson, feel the guidelines are too rigid.

Council President John Ferraro, who appointed Feuer to head the influential committee on rules and elections, gave the rookie councilman some friendly advice when he heard Feuer propose one of his ethics reforms in a recent committee meeting. He suggested that Feuer be careful how he portrays his council colleagues.

“I defended the integrity of the council and I said, ‘Remember, you are one of us now,’ ” said Ferraro, who nonetheless praises Feuer’s drive and intelligence.

In October, Feuer proposed a charter amendment to increase the independence of the Ethics Commission by taking away the mayor’s power to appoint the president of the panel. Instead, he suggested that commission members vote for the president.

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Feuer made the motion after the commission, headed by Raquelle de la Rocha, a new Riordan appointee, fired longtime director Benjamin Bycel, the hard-nosed founder of the city’s anticorruption unit. Bycel’s supporters charged that Riordan was behind the ouster because he wanted a commission chief who would be less aggressive.

The council voted last month to put Feuer’s proposal on the November ballot.

Riordan opposes Feuer’s charter amendment, saying the Ethics Commission is already independent and rejecting the suggestion that he has too much influence over the panel. Still, Riordan said he has worked well with Feuer despite their differences.

For Feuer, the ethics reforms are an attempt to reestablish faith in the city’s elected officials among residents. He said he believes many of the city’s problems can be traced to a lack of trust in government.

“Government is imperfect,” he said. “We don’t have all the answers but we can do a lot.”

He has been lauded by constituents for meeting a campaign promise by calling on the city to do away with the controversial Sherman Oaks redevelopment project, which was set up to assist earthquake victims in the area. Homeowners sued the city to kill the project, citing the checkered history of other redevelopment efforts. The project is expected to be officially dismantled next month.

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In July, just weeks after taking office, Feuer helped broker a compromise between the developer of a long-disputed project at Woodman Avenue and Ventura Boulevard and nearby homeowners who had opposed the size of the proposal. The developer reduced the size.

But he has had less success in forging consensus on a proposal to renovate the Sherman Oaks Galleria by adding 13 movie screens; two major homeowner groups are still fighting the project, though they say they appreciate his efforts.

“Most people are surprised at how effective he’s been in making communities better,” said Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn.

Feuer also has made strides toward improving police visibility in the community by gaining approval for four police service centers in his district since taking office.

Jeff Brain, an unsuccessful candidate for the 5th District seat and chairman of the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan Review Board, says that Feuer’s office has served Sherman Oaks well but maintained that the councilman has yet to fulfill his campaign promise of establishing police substations throughout his district. Community service centers, which are not regularly staffed by police officers, do not count, he said.

George Parks, a member of the Westside Civic Federation, said many residents in the Westside are pleased with Feuer’s efforts to fight noise generated by the Santa Monica Airport.

“He immediately jumped in and scheduled a meeting with Santa Monica Airport officials and right off the bat brought everybody together,” he said.

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Although Feuer beat Yaroslavsky’s wife out of the job, the supervisor said he holds no grudge against Feuer. In fact, last week Yaroslavsky and his staff engaged in a friendly bowling match against Feuer and his staff. Yaroslavsky’s team won.

“He is the kind of person I would have wanted to succeed with my job and I have not been disappointed,” Yaroslavsky said.