Feuer Throws a Few Lefts, a Few Rights

It’s not easy being a freshman. Just ask Mike Feuer. When Feuer joined the Los Angeles City Council in July, many City Hall insiders expected the progressive lawyer and former director of a legal aid clinic to be a new addition to the liberal voting bloc on the council.

But after his first six months in office, some liberal members of the council privately complained that he hadn’t been as strong a supporter of traditional liberal causes as they expected.

He lost some points with his progressive peers in September, when the council began grilling Mayor Richard Riordan’s nominations for commission posts about their views on affirmative action.

The grillings were prompted by Riordan’s nomination of Michelle Park-Steel to the Airport Commission after she had written a column criticizing the city’s affirmative action policies.

Feuer--while saying that he supports affirmative action--voted to back Park-Steel’s nomination. He also voted for Jeff Brain, a nominee who said he supports the controversial California Civil Rights Initiative that would do away with affirmative action measures.

Last week, however, Feuer won points with his liberal peers when he introduced a motion to oppose a bill by state Assemblyman William J. “Pete” Knight (R-Palmdale) that precludes California from recognizing same-sex marriages.

Feuer introduced the motion on an urgency basis because the Assembly was scheduled to vote on the bill within a week and he wanted to make the council’s opposition known.

Feuer’s motion garnered the support of all but one council member, Hal Bernson, the conservative lawmaker representing the northwest San Fernando Valley.

Bernson, who had just entered council chambers after attending a meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, was caught off guard by the motion. It is the practice among some council members to simply slip out of the chambers for a snack or a restroom break just before a controversial vote that they want to avoid. But Bernson didn’t have time for such a move.

Later, his chief of staff, Greig Smith, acknowledged that Bernson wished he could have avoided the vote. Nonetheless, he said Bernson is not “anti-gay” but voted no because he felt the council should not be voting on social issues that don’t directly affect the city.

“It was a matter of inappropriateness,” Smith said.

On Wednesday, the Assembly passed Knight’s bill.

Buck Shot

Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) thought he knew his audience when he delivered a recent speech to the winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

McKeon won a round of applause when he explained that his bill to consolidate federal job training, adult education and literacy programs would cut bureaucracy and give more power to local officials. And he seemed to get sympathy when he held up the thick Government Printing Office text containing the differences still to be worked out between his bill and that of Sen. Nancy L. Kassebaum (R-Kan.)

But as much as he may still identify with local governments and their concerns, McKeon is a congressman now. And he couldn’t escape the hard questions about his role in the budget impasse, which has mayors across the country worrying about their own federal government allotments.

“Summer’s almost here and we’re going to have to deal with these kids,” pointed out Carson Mayor Michael Mitoma.

McKeon looked briefly puzzled, then his expression turned pained as an aide explained to him that House Republicans had eliminated funding for the summer jobs program.

“This is the stuff I used to complain about, and now I’m here on the federal level causing some of the same problems,” he said. “This is a messy thing we’re in right now.”

Martin reported from Los Angeles and Lacey from Washington, D.C. Contributing to this column was Barbara Ferry of the States News Service.