City Council Takes Elevator Debate to Next Level

Los Angeles City Council members traded sharp words Wednesday over an issue close to home--the slow elevators in City Hall’s new temporary offices on Main Street.

The debate began on a light note but grew fractious after City Councilwoman Laura Chick proposed speeding things up by opening a controversial “official-use only” elevator to the public.

“To me, symbols are very powerful, and this from the beginning felt elitist,” Chick said.

Councilman Mike Hernandez, who was besieged by reporters when he returned to City Hall after his arrest on a cocaine offense, defended the arrangement, citing times when he sought refuge from the media.

Among those siding with Hernandez was Councilman Hal Bernson, who said the “only mistake” was choosing an elevator in public view. He suggested the less conspicuous freight elevator be converted instead.

Councilman Richard Alatorre angrily derided colleagues for dismissing security concerns, which had been offered as the rationale for keeping an elevator set aside for elected officials.

“My life has been threatened many times. I get tired of it,” he said. “I respect my life. Maybe some of you don’t.”

Alatorre then sat down abruptly, muttering, “It’s outrageous.”

The 18-story City Hall East building--a temporary replacement for the old City Hall, which is being renovated--has long been plagued by a sluggish, 1974-vintage system with 12 passenger elevators and one freight elevator.

But since the number of employees in the building has swelled by 300 to 1,400, including 15 council members, the laggardly lifts have been the focus of increasing public ire.

General-services officials said that, like so much else in Los Angeles, the elevators are the victims of years of balancing budgets at the expense of basic maintenance. They serve as a daily reminder to elected officials of the consequences of such neglect in a city plagued by rumpled sidewalks and corroded 70-year-old sewer lines.

As for the official-use-only elevator, a standard feature of many public buildings, there’s “a convenience factor,” said Randall Bacon, general manager of general services.

“It’s not convenient for elected officials to get on the elevators with regular city employees. You have employees trying to talk to them and remind them that they took a picture with them at Christmas--that sort of thing.”

Bacon said the city has recently invested about $425,000 in reprogramming the elevators, but further upgrades are needed. The city has also finally replaced escalators in the Los Angeles Mall below City Hall East that had been broken for about two years.

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The elevators are an endless source of wry comments at City Hall, but wryness evaporated as Wednesday’s council discussion wore on. Council members accused each other of egalitarian grandstanding and enforcing a pecking order.

Councilman Nate Holden favored the official elevator, saying that, if others were waiting, he would invite them along. Councilman Joel Wachs appealed for benches so that the elderly could sit while they waited.

In the end, the council agreed to send the motion to committee for further consideration.