Walters Fires a New Salvo in War of Words with Mayor

Take that!

City Councilwoman Rita Walters and Mayor Richard Riordan have taken their personal feud out of City Hall and to the streets--or at least to the mailboxes of thousands of Los Angeles residents.

In the latest round of this escalating squabble, Walters has fired off a letter to 20,000 constituents blasting Riordan’s fiscal and law enforcement policies.

It follows an earlier mailer from Riordan slamming Walters’ fiscal and law enforcement policies.

The effect of all this is unclear, but if nothing else, the mayor’s mailing illustrated his thoroughness: One of his critical letters wound up in the councilwoman’s mailbox.

The most recent flier, “A Special Message from Councilwoman Rita Walters,” shows a picture of a jagged chasm tearing apart City Hall, with the words, “When trust is broken.”

In the letter, Walters defends her decision to vote against hiring “police officers with a onetime grant, with no idea how we will pay them two years down the road,” and lambastes Riordan for sending out letters that criticized the councilwoman for her vote, accusing him of playing off one community against another.

Earlier this summer, 10 of the City Council’s 15 members voted to slow down Riordan’s plans to expand the police force. The mayor wants to use $19.5 million in federal grant money to add 710 officers next year. Council members, concerned that the city will not have enough money to continue paying the officers’ salaries, voted to cut the number to 460.

It was on the eve of the vote that Riordan sent out mailers--”letters of concern,” as the mayor’s office put it--to constituents of council members who opposed his plan.

“We laughed,” said Felicia Bragg, a consultant to Walters, recalling Riordan’s letter. “They just blew it. . . . It hit in her district the day after the vote.”

Riordan’s camp seemed equally amused by Walters’ comeback.

“Pathetic,” grumbled one official from the mayor’s office, who asked not to be identified. “This is so typical of City Council that it took three months to act on a letter that was put out by the mayor in early-to-mid May.”

Noelia Rodriguez, spokeswoman for the mayor, said the “only purpose for the mayor’s letter” was to communicate directly with constituents to let them know how their council members were voting.

She said there are no plans to counter Walters’ counterattack.

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Postal Punches

City Council member Rita Walters and Mayor Richard Riordan are taking their personal feud to the mailboxes of thousands of Los Angelenos. In the most recent round, Walters counters Riordan’s attack with massive of her own.