A 2nd Helping of My Lunch With Marvin

Marvin Braude went back to the buffet and returned with California rolls and quartered oranges. We’d been talking for a half hour and it was obvious that one column wouldn’t suffice.

So call this one “My Lunch With Marvin: The Sequel.”

When we last left Braude, readers may recall, the longest-serving member of the Los Angeles City Council had delivered a harsh condemnation of the cynicism behind term limits. Under a charter amendment adopted in 1992, council members are now limited to two four-year terms. Braude, now in his eighth term and 31st year on the council, didn’t need to point out that his greatest political triumphs--environmental protection, slow-growth policies and public smoking restrictions--came well after his first two terms. Such limits, he said, are an insult because they presume voters can’t be trusted to elect or reject whom they choose.

Cynicism had emerged as the theme of the discussion. Soon we found ourselves discussing an editorial that appeared that day in my second-favorite Los Angeles newspaper, the Daily News.

“It’s Time to Go,” declared the headline over a piece accusing City Council President John Ferraro of “abuse of power.”

The bashing took various forms, but the trigger seemed to be the perception that Ferraro played some sort of dirty trick by making three appointments to a charter reform commission that Mayor Riordan refused to make.

Riordan, you may recall, is pushing a rival charter-reform process that would create an elected commission. Ferraro has served on the council nearly as long as Braude. As council president, he is acting mayor when the mayor is out of the city; it was under those circumstances that Ferraro made the appointments.

Braude said he understood why Ferraro’s actions might be hastily judged as an opportunistic power play. But this, Braude argued, is in fact another example of cynicism where none is due.

The more accurate perception, Braude said, is that Ferraro was acting in a perfectly appropriate and even “gentlemanly” manner. Ferraro, Braude noted, had sent fellow council members a letter saying Riordan had requested that Ferraro make the appointments as acting mayor. (Riordan aides would later suggest that, rather than make a request, the mayor raised no objections to Ferraro’s plan.)

Riordan and Ferraro arrived at a solution that would enable the 21-member commission to be filled. Although the two disagree on methods, Braude said, “they’re both trying to make the system work.”

Given that the topic was cynicism, I decided to level some of my own at Braude. This past spring, when he voted to endorse Assemblywoman Paula Boland’s secession bill, I figured the councilman had betrayed high ideals in favor of political expediency.

The politics that swirled around the Boland bill, as then formulated, were something to behold. It’s hard to imagine that Boland’s plan would have survived a legal challenge. Her secession bill, after all, envisioned dividing Los Angeles in two by an election that would have denied most Angelenos the right to vote.

As legislation, it was doomed without an amendment requiring a citywide vote. But as a political document, it worked wonders, giving Boland a boost in her run for the state Senate. And at City Hall, it reinforced the old saw that all politics is local.

Valley council members, fearful of offending local activists, supported it while representatives “over the hill” opposed it. Only those whose districts bridge the Santa Monica Mountains--Braude, Ferraro and Mike Feuer--faced a dilemma.

Of the three, only Braude voted to endorse the Boland bill. Why?

The political calculus seemed simple enough. At the time, there was every indication that Braude would be seeking reelection--and because of his age and likely opponents, every reason to think he might have a hard fight.

Braude, a Brentwood resident, built his political base on the Westside; the Valley’s growth led to redistricting that now gives Braude a large swath of the southwest Valley that extends to the aging heart of Van Nuys. Braude, I figured, must have been thinking that he could rely on his Westside base but wanted to shore up his Valley support. (And by casting this vote, Braude avoided the parochial criticisms and editorial attacks that Feuer and Ferraro soon suffered.)

It wasn’t surprising that Braude would dispute my analysis. His vote, he insisted, wasn’t motivated by self-serving politics, but by his desire to advance the secession debate to a more meaningful level, one in which a serious economic analysis could be conducted.

“You’d face more reality. That way, you’d be talking about real things,” Braude said. As it was, he added, the Boland bill “was just an emotional argument.”

Braude, a former businessman who for years chaired the council’s Budget and Finance Committee, says separatists greatly underestimate the cost of their vision. Once Valley residents understood the true tax burden of reinventing city government, he said, support would crumble.

Braude hadn’t convinced me that my alleged cynicism was out of order. He is, as he puts it, “a practical politician.” But lunch was over and it was time to head to City Hall.

On the way, Braude reflected on his decision not to seek a ninth term. He was visiting his daughter, a professor, at a cabin in Vermont where she is writing her second book. In days of quiet reflection--no TV, no radio, no telephone--he decided that there were other things he wants to do in the next four years.

Braude isn’t retiring, he says, just leaving the council. He plans to stay active in many causes, including his dream of an expansion of city offices in Van Nuys to serve the Valley. A new, improved civic center, he said, would help revitalize Van Nuys and be a source of pride for the Valley.

City Hall loomed above us. It was still wearing the soon-to-be-removed black band designed to keep quake-damage debris from falling. As we headed for the Main Street entrance, it seemed fitting that we would pass one of Marvin Braude’s living legacies, the kind you see all over town.

It was an office worker standing outside, taking a cigarette break.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to Harris at the Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, CA 91311. Please include a phone number.