Speaker Urged to Rescind Unz Appointment

Latino civil rights activists are urging state Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) to rescind his appointment of anti-bilingual education champion Ron Unz to a blue ribbon panel on government finance.

Villaraigosa, reaching out to a political opponent, recently named Unz and 27 others to an advisory panel he created to examine ways to finance state and local government.

Some in the Latino community say the move has backfired. Although the activists agree with Villaraigosa, a possible candidate for mayor of Los Angeles, on a broad array of issues, they revile Unz because he successfully promoted Proposition 227, the anti-bilingual education initiative approved by voters last year.

“We should not reward those who attack and hurt our community like Ron Unz,” Marcos R. Contreras, state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said in a letter sent last week to Villaraigosa.

“We should avoid giving [a] position of influence and authority to those who can do harm to our community,” Contreras said.

Representatives of several other groups offered similar views.

“Unz hasn’t been on our side,” said Gabriel Medel, who is with the Los Angeles-based Parents for Unity. Medel said critics of the Unz appointment are trying to arrange a meeting later this week with Villaraigosa, who on Monday was in Mexico with Gov. Gray Davis, who is on a three-day official visit there.

One group has called for a protest Wednesday at the speaker’s office.

Elena Stern, a spokeswoman for Villaraigosa, said the Assembly speaker remains at odds with Unz on bilingual education but defended the appointment, citing the Silicon Valley entrepreneur’s “interesting perspective” on government finance.

Villaraigosa and Unz are not natural political allies. Unz, who grew up in North Hollywood, once ran for the Republican nomination for governor. The speaker, in contrast, is a liberal Democrat with political roots in the labor union movement. They met during debates last spring over the contentious Proposition 227.

“If this were a bilingual education commission, Mr. Unz would not be on it,” Stern said. “While the speaker appreciates [critics’] sentiment, in this particular case he’s not convinced he should remove Mr. Unz.”

Stern noted that Villaraigosa is not afraid to criticize Unz. Last week, for example, the speaker took Unz to task for using stationery with Proposition 227 letterhead to announce his appointment to the government finance panel.

She said Unz has now made it clear that he is serving on the commission as an individual, not as a representative of any group.

Unz said Monday that he was dismayed by the protest over his appointment to the finance panel. The group, officially called the Commission on State and Local Government Finance, met last week for the first time.

“I think it’s very unfortunate these activist groups would be opposed to the spirit of bipartisanship which the speaker has demonstrated,” Unz said.

In Sacramento, some critics privately grumble that the commission the speaker created is intended to boost Villaraigosa’s potential bid for mayor.

If Villaraigosa could take steps to deal with the issue of local government finance, it could boost his career, Unz acknowledged.

“To the extent that the commission can suggest solutions, . . . that would be a feather in the speaker’s cap,” Unz said.

Times staff writer Jean O. Pasco in Orange County contributed to this story.