Reaction Mixed to Riordan Reshuffling of Staff

He named a couple of new deputy mayors, added an education advisor--believed to be the first for any Los Angeles mayor--and put one of his most seasoned insiders in charge of dealing with the City Council.

Mayor Richard Riordan’s staff reshuffling late last month--the latest of periodic shake-ups during the businessman-turned-politician’s 3 1/2 years in office--drew its share of skeptics and detractors.

“Guess he’s still trying to get it right,” one seasoned bureaucrat said dismissively a few moments after Riordan’s office issued a statement outlining the changes a week before Thanksgiving.

Some see the latest changes, coming less than six months before Riordan stands for reelection, as too little too late, especially given the escalating power struggle--in the form of a Riordan-initiated charter reform drive--between the mayor and the council.

Beyond the gossipy speculation that greeted the announcement, the reorganization represented a milestone in the staff’s gradual evolution from one dominated by private-sector outsiders to one in which people with strong government or public policy backgrounds have gained a more equal footing.

It is an unspoken acknowledgment, one veteran City Hall watcher observed, that “you can’t shake up the system without at least some people who know how to work within the system.”

Shaking up government (Riordan saw it as sluggish, bloated, inefficient) is what he promised to do when he resigned from the law firm he helped found and took title on July 1, 1993, to the only elected office he had ever sought. The stars of his new administration were mostly longtime friends or business associates who were proud of their government outsider status--and quickly knocked heads with many council members, department heads and other key players at City Hall.

As Riordan’s relations with the council turned rocky and some of his initiatives stalled, the mayor kept shifting things around. Within a year or so, most of the campaign staff that had moved with him to City Hall was gone; he had three chiefs of staff in as many years; and, of his six original deputy mayors, only one remains. Many at City Hall complained that they could not figure out who in the mayor’s office was in charge of what and resented the prominence of what they perceived as some cocky young outsiders with a lot to learn.

*

The latest reorganization--widely expected after the mayor’s right-hand man, former law office protege and trusted friend Michael Keeley was forced out earlier this year--left little doubt about Chief of Staff Robin M. Kramer’s increasingly important role in the administration.

With volunteer help from the same private management consultant who helped Riordan with a restructuring of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the mayor and Kramer crafted a new organizational chart that consolidates office operations into four core areas headed by deputies who report to Kramer. It also adds a second unpaid senior policy advisor and creates a separate budget director slot. The senior advisors and the budget director report to the mayor, as does Kramer.

Kramer said the reorganization was in part to fill a void left by Keeley’s departure, but also, as with earlier shake-ups, it was in keeping with “the mayor’s constantly looking for improvement in the way we communicate with constituents and others at City Hall” to accomplish the administration’s goals.

Riordan’s latest top aide, whose two decades in government and civic affairs included stints as chief of staff to two city councilmen, executive director of the Coro Foundation and lobbyist, joined the mayor’s office 3 1/2 months after the administration’s start-up. Her appointment, as deputy mayor for communications and community affairs, was widely viewed as an acknowledgment that the administration needed someone who could navigate City Hall’s complicated political landscape.

When then-Chief of Staff Bill Ouchi, a UCLA business school professor and an internationally prominent management expert, resigned in June 1995, Kramer was promoted to the job but shared top billing on the office organizational chart with Keeley, who was named chief operating officer.

Keeley’s resignation last spring, after a month of political furor over his surreptitiously turning over city attorney documents to an opposing attorney in a Department of Water and Power contract dispute, left Kramer alone at the top. And last month’s reorganization not only reaffirmed her preeminent position, but also bore clear traces of her management style and ideas.

*

Her 1 1/2-page letter announcing the reorganization to the mayor’s staff employed one of her favorite metaphors: “We are the ‘wings and feet’ to help make” Riordan’s goals for a better city become a reality.

She also signaled her intention to continue the occasional daylong staff sessions outside City Hall that she initiated when she became chief of staff. The staff will continue to attend office meetings she dubbed WIGO (for What Is Going On), but the formerly twice-monthly sessions will drop to once a month as “two-hour high-impact briefings and training sessions conducted by our own staff and leaders from many sectors of the community.”

The Monday morning senior staff meetings are being replaced with as-needed gatherings of a new “strategy team,” consisting of Kramer, Budget and Strategic Planning Director Christopher O’Donnell and the four directors of the core divisions--Stephanie Bradfield (community and government affairs), Steven Sugerman (communications), Kelly M. Martin (policy and finance) and Gary Mendoza (economic development). Presumably, the mayor and senior advisors Steven Soboroff and Helen Bernstein will attend some or all of these sessions.

Bernstein, the former firebrand leader of United Teachers-Los Angeles, worked with Riordan on LEARN, the Los Angeles school reform initiative he helped launch a few years ago. In her new, unpaid role, she will help the mayor advance his ideas on school reform, an area technically outside his jurisdiction but an effort in which he has long held an active interest.

In Bernstein, Riordan will have an articulate, nationally recognized education leader who now heads TURN, a teachers union-led school reform effort. How Riordan plans to implement his interest in exerting more influence over the public education system remains unclear.

The city technically has had no jurisdiction in education matters since the Legislature created an independent school district in 1872, but school reform has long been a central concern of Riordan. His family philanthropic foundation has for several years been donating millions to put computers into schools in poverty-ridden neighborhoods in Los Angeles and around the nation.

*

The reorganization also shifted the roles of Deputy Mayors Bill Violante and Sharon Morris. Violante, a seasoned advocate from his 15 years as a leader in the Police Protective League, takes over the crucial and difficult role of liaison to the City Council, while special assistant Joe Gunn, like Violante a former LAPD cop, will assume more of Violante’s public safety policy responsibilities. Violante’s new assignment was welcomed by some council members and their top aides, who had referred to Riordan’s earliest liaisons as “the kids” and did not believe they had the mayor’s ear.

Morris, who oversees neighborhood improvement initiatives, adds community outreach programs, field staff, the volunteer bureau and special projects to her plate.

Kramer also said she is setting aside time each week--3:30 on Thursdays--to make herself available to individual staff members “to promote open communication and feedback.”

City Hall reaction to the reorganization ranged from guarded to skeptical.

“Again?” shrugged Councilman Mike Hernandez. “We keep seeing this constant change . . . that makes it that much harder for us to work together with the mayor’s office on issues.”

“Hopefully, they are going to get their act together now,” said Councilman Richard Alatorre, a mayoral ally on most matters. He is an admirer of Kramer, who was his chief deputy for four years, but has nonetheless been critical of the mayor’s staff in general.

“There are good, talented people there, but major blunders, in the eyes of many, take place, and they put the mayor in a bad light,” Alatorre said. “A lot of it is in the execution of things. They may be perceived as small things, but they are real important.”

Greg Nelson, longtime chief deputy to Councilman Joel Wachs, said the continuing changes should not be surprising.

“The odds against getting it right from Day One are enormous, especially since the mayor came in as a City Hall outsider, and he had less than a month to put together a team to run his administration,” Nelson said. “I think you have to look at this as a steady evolution toward getting it right.”

Kramer acknowledged that the administration has had its problems.

“It has not always been clear who to go to, and we’ve heard criticism that we’ve had talented people trying to do too many things,” Kramer said, but added:

“I think there will always be critics, but the effort here is an honest and open effort” to change for the better.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Team Riordan

As Mayor Richard Riordan gets closer to his reelection bid next spring, his newly reorganized administration gives more authority to those with government experience. His early administration favored City Hall outsiders. Here is a look at his top management.

Senior Advisors (report directly to mayor)

Robin M. Kramer, chief of staff

Long- respected City Hall figure who became a deputy mayor a few months after administration’s startup; has steadily assumed more authority.

*

Christopher O’ Donnell, director of budget and strategic planning

Herded budget through council after resignation of former boss; joined mayor’s office in 1994; formerly worked for council’s chief policy analyst.

*

Helen Bernstein, senior policy advisor (unpaid)

Formerly led United Teachers- Los Angeles; worked with mayor on LEARN school- reform initiative; will be education.

*

Steven Soboroff, senior policy advisor (unpaid)

Westside businessman and philanthropist; founder of real estate consulting firm has negotiated on mayor’s behalf on many key issues.

Deputy Mayors

Stephanie Bradfield, community and government affairs:

Joioned staff in February after career in state government, corporate and nonprofit organizations.

*

Kelly M. Martin, policy and finance: Partner in law firm Riordan helped found; beginning her second tour of duty on mayor’s staff.

*

Gary Mendoza, economic development: Came to Riordan’s law firm in 1988; headed state Department of Corporations; joined mayor’s staff in March.

*

Steven Sugerman, communications: Joined mayor’s staff in 1994; formerly a vice president for Hill and Knowlton public relations firm.

*

Sharon Morris, neighborhood and community affairs: Long career in public service; appointed to Board of Public Works in 1994; joined mayor’s staff in*

Bill Violante, government affairs: Only original deputy mayor remaining; former LAPD officer and leader of Police Protective League.