Council Offers Mild Reaction to Criticism of Hubbell’s Hiring

It was either the insiders’ club protecting friends or a concerted effort to put to rest an old, embarrassing issue for the city.

Either way, a majority of the Los Angeles City Council agreed to a few--some considered weak and others somewhat redundant--recommendations Wednesday in an attempt to rid itself of an awkward episode in which a former airport commissioner and unpaid senior mayoral advisor hired controversial Washington figure Webster Hubbell to lobby for the city.

A year-old city controller’s report found that Theodore O. Stein hired Hubbell without proper authority and that the city should seek repayment of the $24,750 given to Hubbell, a former law partner of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and a golfing partner of the president. His hiring came at the same time Hubbell was being accused of cheating his former clients and partners.

While Councilwoman Ruth Galanter sought to have her colleagues more strongly respond to the issue, her efforts were roundly defeated and her motives seriously questioned by her colleagues.

Stein was recently nominated by the mayor to the Harbor Commission, and his confirmation hearing will be held before a council committee headed by Galanter.

“The insiders’ club was making sure that one of their own was not criticized,” Galanter said after the heated and spirited debate. “I was very disappointed, but I was not surprised.”

Another council member said the “old boys’ network” was rallying around Stein and his lawyer, Neil Papiano, who has represented two council members and remains close friends with Council President John Ferraro.

But other lawmakers said they focused entirely on the issue--not on their personal feelings for either player.

“I think procedures were followed, and I think they tried to make a big deal out of something--well after the fact,” Ferraro said after the vote.

Stein, who appeared at the council meeting but did not speak before the lawmakers, said he believes that the record speaks for itself. Still, he admitted in an interview that he erred in offering Hubbell city employment on the mayor’s letterhead.

“I signed the letter as senior policy advisor to the mayor,” Stein said. “In retrospect, I would not do that again. . . . I was just wearing the wrong hat.”

Because Stein negotiated a deal with Hubbell in which he would be paid less than $50,000, the contract never came before the Airport Commission or the council. City law allows commissions to hire their own contractors if they are paid less than that amount.

Some council members charged that Stein was acting in secret to hire Hubbell, who was retained to lobby for federal approval of a transfer of $58 million to the general fund from an airport land sale. But Stein and others have said that they knew Hubbell was being hired.

In addition, Stein came under attack in the controller’s report for failing to keep copies of letters to Hubbell. And airports department General Manager Jack Driscoll came under scrutiny for validating payment requests for Hubbell.

“Nothing that happened here was illegal,” Papiano told the council. “There was nothing that happened here that was clandestine.”

Some council members saw that differently.

“This is doing the public’s business in private,” Councilman Joel Wachs said. “It’s the system that needs to be singled out.”

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In an unusual move, Ferraro turned over the meeting to Councilman Richard Alatorre so Ferraro could lobby for the weaker recommendations. Ferraro said that neither Stein nor anyone else did anything wrong in the hiring of Hubbell.

“Nobody exceeded his or her authority,” Ferraro said. “The question remains: What should we do with this matter? The only responsible action is to end it today.”

With council members Feuer, Goldberg and Walters dissenting, lawmakers agreed to request that all council and mayoral offices comply with the city’s records retention policies, and that commissioners receive ethics training--a function already performed by the Ethics Commission. The council also agreed to have the ethics staff develop a “warning” that city staff will be held personally responsible if they do something that they know is inappropriate, unethical or a result of an abuse of power.

Lawmakers roundly rejected a proposal, sought by Galanter, to “formally notify” Stein that his actions embarrassed the city. Some said Galanter was attempting to single out Stein.

“Are we going to pass a motion every time the city is embarrassed?” said Councilman Richard Alarcon. “I don’t think we want to go down that road.”

Still, Galanter, along with Feuer, Goldberg and Walters, urged her colleagues to take the steps necessary to ensure the public understands that the council won’t tolerate these types of arrangements.

“We’re responsible here for good government,” Galanter said. “We’re not a court of law. . . . It’s a question of how do we want to run our government. Do we want to do it in secret?”