Riordan Creates Incentive for Some AIDS Walk Participants

Richard Riordan, Los Angeles’ multimillionaire mayor, is once again pulling out his checkbook for a cause important to him--and this time he has added a twist aimed at boosting city employees’ participation in the project.

In a memo to drum up support for this year’s AIDS Walk Los Angeles, Riordan promised that for each department head who participates in the walkathon, he will contribute $1,000 to the cause.

“I am counting on the cooperation of all general managers and city employees as we plan for the 1996 event,” the mayor said in the memo, sent last month to the city’s 32 general managers.

As in the past, the kickoff memo for putting together a city team of volunteer participants in the annual fund-raising project named a citywide coordinator and directed department heads to designate one of their employees to help with the planning.

Begun in 1985 to raise money for prevention programs and for housing, food and other services for people stricken with the deadly virus that destroys the immune system, AIDS Walk Los Angeles has grown steadily. Last year’s 10-kilometer walk drew 22,000 participants and raised more than $3 million, according to its organizer, AIDS Project Los Angeles. This year’s walk is scheduled for Sept. 29.

Noting that the 200-plus city employees who participated last year raised more than $55,000, Riordan’s memo raised the bar this time around.

“This year, we would like to double the number of walkers and raise more than $75,000,” Riordan said. “To assist in this effort, I am pledging to donate to our city team $1,000 for each general manager who participates in the AIDS Walk.”

So far, three general managers have signed up, according to the mayor’s press office, which added that it is too early to gauge what the turnout will be.

None of the managers interviewed said they felt pressured to sign up for the walk, even though under recent changes in city laws, the mayor and City Council have more say-so in the fate of department heads, including raises.

The AIDS Walk is one of a number of charitable causes in which city employees are encouraged to help. In addition to the mayor’s pledge, Riordan co-signed a letter about the walk that arrived in city employees’ July 17 pay envelopes, the mayor’s office said. Other officials urging employees to join the walk were City Council President John Ferraro, City Atty. James Hahn and city Controller Rick Tuttle.

“I was happy to have the opportunity to take $1,000 off the mayor,” joked Robert Yates, head of the Department of Transportation and recently installed president of the city’s General Managers Assn., who said he already has returned his pledge cards.

General Services chief Randall Bacon, who served as the managers association president for four years, said he would be surprised if any of his colleagues felt uncomfortable about the memo.

“I imagine most general managers reacted like I did,” Bacon said. “I immediately put it on my calendar.”

Jurutha Brown, interim head of the Personnel Department, said she has sponsored walks in the past and is leaning toward joining this year’s walk, now that her 3 1/2-year-old daughter is big enough to go along.

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, head of the council’s Personnel Committee who is active in anti-AIDS causes, said she was delighted with the mayor’s pledge.

“It’s a very generous offer. It’s great,” Goldberg said.

The mayor has a history of opening his wallet for numerous causes. He paid for a UCLA project to assess the ramifications of a proposed Los Angeles Unified School District breakup and donated money to inner city schools and to a group he appointed to raise money for a new computer system for the Police Department.