Riordan, Hayden Duel Verbally but Not Face to Face

They didn’t meet face to face, ask each other questions or even get to respond to their opponents’ accusations, but Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) spent dueling half-hours on public radio Friday offering competing visions of a city under their leadership.

The challenger repeatedly poked fun at the incumbent’s refusal to accept a full salary, calling Riordan a “dollar a year man” about a dozen times. Riordan at times referred to his opponent as “Mr. Hayden,” rather than “Sen. Hayden,” and at one point said that what Hayden is saying on the stump is “a bunch of bull.”

Both men answered a barrage of questions from a trio of veteran political reporters on issues including the selection of a new police chief, the growing divide between rich and poor, expansion of Los Angeles International Airport, prospects for public transit and neighborhood empowerment.

“You can’t destroy the economy and have all the other good things Sen. Hayden talks about,” Riordan said at one point during a special edition of “Which Way, L.A.?” on KCRW-FM (89.9).

“We cannot have this kind of growth for greed, growth for profit, at the expense of neighborhoods and the environment,” Hayden said when his turn came, half an hour later. “We have to adjust to the fact that too much growth is a real possibility. I have a son who’s 6 foot 2. He’s great. If he were 10 feet tall, it’d be too much.”

Emphasized in both discussions was the Police Commission’s decision this month not to grant Chief Willie L. Williams a second five-year term. Riordan said he would support “100%” whatever financial settlement the City Council approves to encourage Williams to depart before his term ends July 6.

“I think the chief should be allowed to leave with dignity,” the mayor said. “We should be fair with him and take in the human element, as well as the legal element.”

Riordan, a Republican, said that race should “absolutely not” be a factor in seeking Williams’ replacement, and that he wants to search nationwide but would prefer a candidate from within the department. In contrast, Hayden said ethnicity should definitely be considered in the selection process.

“It should not be the overriding factor, but you’d have to be blind not to take it into account,” he said. “You have a racially fractured city.”

The two candidates agreed that Los Angeles is split into “haves and have-nots,” but Riordan emphasized education as a route to bridging that gap, while Hayden suggested that government programs--including a “living wage ordinance” passed by the City Council this week--would improve the situation for the poor sooner. Riordan has pledged to veto the ordinance.

“Many of the programs that Mr. Hayden is talking about have been worked on for a long time,” Riordan said, citing mentoring and child care as examples. “But they are not magic pills.”

Asked about the shortage of affordable housing and this week’s fire in an illegally converted garage that killed three people, the mayor said: “In government, you do not have an inexhaustible amount of money. You have to use it in the best way.”

Hayden hammered Riordan for the city’s 60% compliance rate for payment of business taxes, and said fees could be lowered and wages increased if more of the outstanding debts were collected. He also criticized the mayor and his three appointees to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board for casting “1,000 votes” in favor of the subway, and pledged to bring the Red Line above ground as soon as possible, if he is elected.

“I think it’s been a catastrophe, I think it’s been a scandal, I think it’s been corrupt,” the liberal senator said. “It’s a fiscal tapeworm that is eating the money that could provide busways.”

Referring to a comment attributed to the mayor in an article scheduled for publication next week in an education newspaper, Hayden also accused Riordan of trying to grab power by “floating the idea” of replacing the elected board of the Los Angeles Unified School District with a panel appointed by the mayor.

“It’s ridiculous, and it reveals this ambition of a behind-the-scenes downtown power broker who thinks other elected officials are in the way,” he said. “The mayor of Los Angeles should be on the school board. To have a successful city, you’ve got to have successful schools. But I don’t think Mayor Riordan should take over the school district.”

While Riordan has made education one of three major issues in his reelection campaign, aides said Friday that the mayor has no intention of changing the structure of the school board. Chief of staff Robin Kramer and communications director Steve Sugerman--who sat in on Riordan’s interview with Education Week--said the mayor was simply discussing ways to make local schools more accountable, and mentioned Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s move last year to take control of the district in that city.

“Possibly, if you had appointed officials that are just focused on the kids, they wouldn’t have to worry about elections and things like that,” Sugerman recalled the mayor saying. “I think he characterized it as something to take a look at. I know that he didn’t say that he should . . . take over.”

In any case, education officials said such a move would be impossible because California law requires the election of school board members. Also, while Daley already had fiscal responsibility for Chicago’s schools, the Los Angeles district is completely separate from the city government, with funding funneled through the state.

The only way a mayor could wrest fiscal control away, experts said, is to create a “charter district,” which requires approval of 100% of the area’s teachers. Even that would not eliminate the requirement for an elected school board.

“I don’t think the public would buy this,” said teachers union President Day Higuchi, who was also interviewed for the Education Week article. “Dick Riordan is very interested in education and would probably be a good education mayor, but who’s going to come after him?”

With 18 days left before the April 8 election, Riordan repeated previous statements that a rematch of last week’s face-off on Century Cable is unlikely. “My schedule is tied up solid,” he said.

Times education writer Amy Pyle contributed to this report.