Hayden Opens Valley Campaign Office

Mayoral candidate Tom Hayden opened his San Fernando Valley campaign office Saturday and used the occasion to skewer incumbent Richard Riordan for what he called the mayor’s failure to keep campaign promises made to Valley residents.

The Democratic state senator also used the opening to point out how relations between the mayor and the police chief would be improved in a Hayden administration.

An undercurrent of tension between Riordan and Police Chief Willie L. Williams was evident Friday, Hayden said, in the hours following a shootout between bank robbers and police in North Hollywood.

The two leaders were thrown together in a crisis and it was uncomfortable for both of them, Hayden said, because of the animosity that has built up between them. Hayden already has thrown his support behind Williams in his bid for another term as LAPD chief.

The Riordan administration is “big business, big labor and big government” at the expense of neighborhoods, homeowner groups and taxpayers in general, Hayden told about 30 supporters gathered in the Ventura Boulevard headquarters in Sherman Oaks.

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Hayden said the proposed breakup of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the completion of the MTA tunneling project beneath Studio City and the appointment of a “gang czar” are all promises made to Valley residents by Riordan that have gone unfulfilled.

“The Valley is 35% of L.A.’s population and pays 31.5% of the city’s taxes,” Hayden said, but “gets back just 22% of the city’s services.” Nearly one-quarter of the budget, he said, goes to centralized expenditures downtown.

“I support elected neighborhood councils with power over services and zoning,” he said.

If elected mayor April 8, Hayden said he would work to ensure that Valley residents’ interests in education, transportation and law enforcement are heard and acted on.

Specifically, Hayden said, he will fight to end the MTA “boondoggle,” decentralize the school district, create more charter schools, promote charter reform, put 3,000 more police officers on the street and launch more crime prevention programs.

Hayden said that the upcoming election is a contest between a “downtown mayor and a neighborhood mayor.”

“Mayor Riordan flies his noisy private jet over the Valley while I’m walking Ventura Boulevard,” he said. “While Richard Riordan’s jet drowns you out, I will be here to listen.”