Riordan Has a Bad Council Day

Any way you look at it, Mayor Richard Riordan had a very bad day with the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday.

First, the lawmakers voted to seize jurisdiction over an Airport Commission proposal to put new public relations contracts out for bid. Next, the council overrode Riordan’s veto of a dance permit for a Hollywood nightclub, deciding a bitter, long-running battle between the mayor and Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg in the lawmaker’s favor. Then, to add insult to injury, council members lashed out at the way Riordan removed well-connected political insider Dan Garcia from his post as president of the Airport Commission last week.

Councilman Nate Holden summed it up best, if not delicately: “They dropkicked the mayor today.”

Council members seized the opportunity to hand the mayor a daylong series of disappointments. And they appeared particularly eager to criticize Riordan’s handling of Garcia, who was asked by a top mayoral aide to leave the commission and become an advisor while the mayor himself was in Washington, D.C.

“You take a guy like [Garcia] and kick him in the ass? I don’t think so,” said one council member who declined to be identified.

Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who is deeply at odds with Riordan over the proposed expansion of Los Angeles International Airport, put it bluntly: “I think it’s a rotten way to treat a guy like Garcia, who was sent out there to do what the mayor asked him to do.”

At the end of the day, it seemed possible that Garcia--whose resignation should have been on Riordan’s desk Tuesday but was not--might be looking for the eight council votes that would prevent the mayor from removing him.

Sources who have been consulted by Garcia say that he has more than toyed with the idea of fighting his ouster--particularly, the sources say, because he feels personally betrayed by Riordan’s chief of staff, Robin Kramer. When Kramer requested Garcia’s resignation, sources said, he agreed, but asked that the process be handled in a “dignified” manner. Garcia, the sources said, was asked by Kramer to remain silent over the weekend. According to the sources, Kramer said that she also would decline to comment, but Garcia believed that she had talked to reporters.

Garcia was Riordan’s lead person on airport expansion and is the mastermind of the so-called master plan, which charts the entire effort. For years, Riordan aides praised Garcia’s work, and most agree that without the attorney and land use specialist, the master plan would never have come this far. In recent months, however, the campaign to enlarge LAX has stumbled, and Galanter’s efforts seem to have gained ground--even among some council members.

Garcia, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, drew solid support from lawmakers, even from those not considered to be exceptionally close political allies.

“I don’t think it’s been handled very well at all,” said council President John Ferraro. “I don’t know anyone who could do a better job [of handling the proposed, massive expansion of LAX]. He’s knowledgeable about planning. He’s smart. He’s certainly been supportive of the mayor in the past.”

One longtime council observer noted that Garcia is “an expert” in the type of negotiations with neighborhood organizations that will be necessary to win community and political support for an expansion of LAX. Under the expansion plan favored by Riordan, LAX would grow from about 60 million passengers a year to 100 million.

But opponents, led by Galanter, say that residents living near LAX have shouldered enough of the burden for air traffic to the region. They complain of noise, traffic congestion and pollution.

The growing discord has left the Riordan administration groping for new solutions, and sources close to Riordan say that he became convinced that a new type of leader was needed to guide the master plan as it shifts from development to implementation.

Others say the manner in which Garcia was treated was a sign of what many on the council see as Riordan’s arrogance.

“He [Riordan] thinks you can flick somebody like Dan Garcia off your sleeve,” said one council observer. “Well, you can’t.”

For their part, Riordan’s aides said they did not believe that Tuesday’s ill will has much more to do with anything other than the council’s own petty infighting and the lawmakers’ eagerness to turn on their common enemy: Riordan.

“Their power muscle has been exercised overtime today,” said Noelia Rodriguez, Riordan’s spokeswoman. “When it rains, it pours.”

The nightclub case particularly disturbed mayoral aides, though, because they were close to a deal that would have allowed everyone to save face.

Instead, the council swiftly voted to override the mayor’s veto, without even a whisper. Mayoral aides were working the back room at the time trying to broker the deal, unaware that the vote was being called.

Goldberg, who for six weeks has been attempting to override the veto, said: “We got our ducks lined up, and they voted.”

Indeed, Goldberg succeeded in winning the support of 11 colleagues. Councilman Richard Alarcon left the room to get coffee; Holden was absent at the time; and Rudy Svorinich cast the only dissenting vote.

Even Phil Duff, the nightclub owner, took the opportunity to needle the mayor. “This is one the mayor couldn’t use his heavy hand on,” Duff said. “Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough money to be one of his friends.”

The nightclub, on Schrader Boulevard just half a block off Hollywood Boulevard, is being investigated by the state Bureau of Alcoholic Beverage Control, which found numerous violations of the club’s permits. In recent sweeps, the Los Angeles Police Department turned up three more violations.

Still, Duff promised: “I will be as squeaky clean as possible.”

His main opponent, who owns a hotel across a city-owned parking lot from the club, took his shots at the council rather than the mayor. “The only comment I can make is that this is typical of city government, which is only interested in the wishes of the councilwoman,” said George Willard.

Then, there was the council’s override of the Airport Commission. Led by Galanter, the council took jurisdiction over a proposal to seek bids for a public relations contract. “I think it would be foolhardy for the council not to question what is going on here,” said Galanter, whose committee will review the issue. “What is it they’re trying to promote?”

But that wasn’t it for the mayor. By day’s end, the council’s budget committee had approved a revised version of Riordan’s $2.7-billion spending plan, adding more than $12 million to various departments and accounts. The panel tinkered with the mayor’s plan by, among other things, adding positions to the city attorney’s office--which the mayor had denied.

“The mayor doesn’t take it personally,” said Rodriguez, his spokeswoman.

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Times staff writer Jim Newton contributed to this story.