A Contentious Crew

“The council, except as otherwise provided, is the governing body of the city.”

--Section 22 of the Los Angeles City Charter

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Take one city. Divide it into 15 oddly shaped pieces. Elect from each part a tenacious advocate with parochial interests. Now start the clock and sic them on each other.

Many of those doing business around City Hall these days believe it’s an apt--even restrained--description of the current Los Angeles City Council.

“This has to be one of the worst eras in council relations in history,” said attorney and land-use specialist Dan Garcia, one of City Hall’s most experienced political insiders.

Critics say that although council members retain their historic legal power to shape Los Angeles’ future, their influence has waned because their focus is increasingly narrow and self-interested.

Many analysts believe that parochialism on the council--the elevation of local interests and personal ambition over the city’s concerns as a whole--has spawned the movements for charter reform and San Fernando Valley secession.

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“I think we all have to realize that we have to look out for the whole city--not just our own districts.”

--City Council President John Ferraro, a 32-year council veteran

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The balkanization of Los Angeles is not a new phenomenon. Indeed, the whole structure of city government has evolved over the last 70 years to strengthen the council and weaken the central executive power.

But observers generally agree that civic divisiveness has been unexpectedly exacerbated in recent years by another popular “reform”: the term limits movement.

In the past, politicians could remain council members for decades. Ernani Bernardi and Marvin Braude, for example, each served 32 years on the City Council before retiring.

Today, council members have a mere eight years to make a mark, to appeal to whatever constituency will help them win their next position and to stay away from controversy that could prevent election to another office.

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“It has created jockeying, rumor-mongering and suspicion. Any time anyone does anything the feeling is it’s because they’re running for something else.”

--A council member and prospective mayoral candidate on the impact of term limits

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Rather than creating a generation of nonprofessional politicians, as term limits were supposed to do, the change seems to have spawned a generation of eternal job-seekers, always looking upward and forward to that next electoral goal.

Understanding the effects of term limits on this council goes a long way toward explaining the behavior of 15 lawmakers whose meetings so often degenerate into bickering, even back-stabbing, sessions.

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“Oh, shut up, Hal.”

--Councilwoman Ruth Galanter to Councilman Hal Bernson during a recent council debate

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The way term limits have affected this set of lawmakers is having a marked impact on many of the people who rely on the City Council, observers say.

Lobbyists, for example, ever wary of the council, are banding together in nearly unprecedented numbers to try to influence votes and win key decisions.

City department heads, mindful of the council’s short attention span, are becoming more powerful--some people see them as the city’s only consistent source of long-range thinking.

Homeowner groups and other constituencies are increasingly important: Wrong decisions can cost council members key support for their next job; the right ones can generate “valuable” support--read campaign cash.

To be sure, voter-approved term limits have also hit the Assembly and Senate in Sacramento, but it is in Los Angeles, seasoned observers say, that the change is having its most obvious and troublesome effect.

Not All Members Are Seeking Higher Office

“What we’re really engaging in is political posturing”

--Councilman Hal Bernson during a debate over a new debt policy

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Not every council member is seeking higher office; it just feels that way. Mike Hernandez, for one, has said he won’t ever run for another publicly elected post, and council President John Ferraro, at 74, says he will seek just one more term before retiring. Rita Walters and Hal Bernson are also among the lawmakers expected to end their political careers at City Hall.

But this is hardly the last stop for such council members as Richard Alarcon (who appears headed for a state Senate seat in the November election), Laura Chick, Mike Feuer, Ruth Galanter and Mark Ridley-Thomas. Rumors abound as to possible mayoral runs for Nate Holden and Joel Wachs. Left unclear are the political futures of Jackie Goldberg, Cindy Miscikowski and Rudy Svorinich Jr.

Some say the maneuvering for the mayor’s job has already begun in the council, with Chick, Wachs and, possibly, Holden eyeing the position. Ridley-Thomas reportedly is weighing a run for either county supervisor or an Assembly seat. Feuer reportedly is focusing on becoming the next city attorney, while Galanter eyes the controller’s job.

With the clock ticking the day they’re elected, council members don’t have much incentive to develop long-term relationships with their colleagues. After all, they could be out in four years or they could remain for just eight. Who needs friendship or institutional memory in a relationship that amounts to a two-term stand?

“There used to be a lot of collegiality between the members of the council,” said controversial politician and lobbyist Arthur K. Snyder, who served 18 years on the City Council and wrote a kind of textbook on collegiality titled “Ten Rules for the Fifteen.” “I really believe that this fad of term limits has been a bad one.”

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“The truth is: We just don’t like each other very much.”

--A council member discussing colleagues

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In fact, these 15 council members don’t seem to know each other very well. They socialize rarely; they see each other mostly in the council chamber three times a week.

Even committee attendance is dropping. Frequently these days, only the chairperson shows up. And this is where many believe the real work of the council gets done.

Goldberg, for example, held a recent hearing on the “living wage” ordinance in the Personnel Committee, which she chairs. She was the only member present, and the meeting lasted three hours.

Regardless, those who know City Hall well say this council has a tendency toward suspicion that would surface even if the members were best friends. They don’t trust each other, and frequently question each others’ motives.

‘There’s a Lot of Personal Ambition’

“I had been in council a couple weeks and someone said: ‘He’s only saying that because he thinks you’re running for mayor against him.’ ”

--A council member

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“There is an old adage that appears to be true: Anybody who tried to rise to the top would be brought back by their peers,” said Garcia, the former airport commissioner and political insider.

Hence, the council’s unwritten 11th Commandment: Thou shalt not shine.

And if you do, watch out.

That implication of their voter-endorsed time limit hasn’t been lost on the council members. Feuer, for example, has initiated several anti-gun proposals that he would like to see regionalized before he is forced to leave office. He has created a task force of officials from other cities to accomplish that goal.

“Term limits make it harder to start and complete projects on critical, intractable, long-term problems,” Feuer said. “There is some tension between tackling the most difficult problems and doing it in just a few years.”

But there is another view.

Former Los Angeles police chief and state Sen. Ed Davis, a term limits supporter, says his advice to members of this council is simple: Get in, make a splash and get out.

“I think if they have to scramble, get the job done and then get the hell out of there, that’s the right way to go,” he said. “I think there are some very good benefits of having some turnover and getting rid of the cabals in a legislative body. People get in there, they get too much power and then they thumb their noses at the public.”

But some would say effective public service involves an important learning curve that takes time to traverse.

“There’s an old saying that it takes a new councilman a year to find the men’s room and four years to become a councilman,” Snyder said. “Just about the time you become a councilman, you’re running for something else.”

Council members are all too aware of this phenomenon.

“There’s a lot of personal ambition here,” Goldberg said. “I think that’s one of the downsides. A lot of the votes reflect what people want to do next.”

Wachs, a veteran of the council, agreed.

“The moment they’re elected, they’re almost campaigning, instead of doing the job they just got elected to,” he said, adding that he is thinking about a mayoral run.

Many observers believe that the council’s shifting voting blocs and ever-changing coalitions are the result of ambition, which seems to take precedence over strong leadership and the need to develop solid working relationships with each other.

“Coalitions last about 50 seconds around here,” said Ron Deaton, the city’s chief legislative analyst, whose job appears to be keeping the 15 off each others’ backs. “They don’t last. With a bloc, you need some common philosophy. . . . That just doesn’t exist here.”

To put it more bluntly, Garcia said: “There doesn’t appear to be any real leader.”

Lack of Coalitions Seen as Positive

“There is no unifying force on this council. They are devoid of leadership, and they are extremely jealous of each other.”

--A top lobbyist who works almost exclusively in City Hall

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But council members don’t view their lack of coalitions in a negative light. Rather, they are almost boastful about the changing alliances, saying they are making decisions on an issue-by-issue basis.

“If you’re looking from the outside at any one controversial vote, and you think you can predict how any one of us is going to vote, good luck,” Goldberg said. “I think that’s a good thing. That’s healthy.”

City department heads, who are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council, say they are frequently caught between a council member’s ambitious designs and reality: Sometimes projects just can’t be completed as quickly as the politicians would like. But the situation can also work to these career bureaucrats’ advantage: They can set an agenda with the cooperation of an ambitious, headline-seeking council member.

Department of Water and Power General Manager S. David Freeman, who has taken on several controversial issues this year, says he enjoys a good working relationship with the council. But observers say he has been the one to initiate and develop that relationship to his advantage.

“Elected public officials are usually likable people,” Freeman said. “You don’t get elected if you’re not. I think they have some bad habits, [like] micromanaging, but they’re not disagreeable people.”

For her part, Chick, who is eyeing a mayoral candidacy, says she believes government is used to telling time by the calendar rather than the clock.

“They’re not used to people coming in and pushing real hard and being in a hurry,” she said. “It’s a pretty tight timeline, and government typically moves slowly.”

As a result, Chick and others say, it’s not unusual for council members to appear impatient and ever mindful of that ticking clock.

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“If you are a candidate, you are more respected. You’re not just a lame duck council member. If you keep your name floating out there, you are still a player.”

--An influential aide to a council member, who, by the way, is seeking higher office