Riordan’s State of City Speech Backs Police Panel, Janitors

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, delivering the penultimate State of the City address of his eight years in office, on Thursday commended the city’s Police Commission for its appointment of a panel to investigate the Rampart police scandal and vigorously announced his determination to help striking janitors, whose cause has attracted national attention.

Departing from his prepared text, Riordan delivered an impassioned appeal for the custodians, who went out on strike 11 days ago.

“How about the janitors, who are bravely marching?” the mayor said. “How can a human being live on six to seven dollars an hour? . . . We owe a livable wage to every human being.”

Riordan, a lawyer and venture capitalist who has enjoyed the strong support of Los Angeles’ business community, nevertheless made clear Thursday that he allies himself with workers in their fight for better wages.

In a news conference after the speech, the mayor said he met Wednesday night with building owners and Thursday morning with labor representatives, trying to find a middle ground in the emotional standoff. “Clearly, I’m on the side of the workers,” Riordan said, adding that he hopes a deal can be struck but cautioning that the issues are more complex than he first thought.

The mayor’s speech--more an ode to the city’s economic health and improved public safety than a blueprint for the coming year--focused, in part, on the events of 1999, when Riordan helped champion tax reform, school reform and charter reform. Voters joined with Riordan in approving a new city charter in June, and the mayor helped usher in a new school board majority pledged to reform.

But 1999 also featured the unfolding of the worst scandal in modern Los Angeles history, the Rampart police corruption allegations. Revelations of reputed police misconduct have grown in the months since the scandal broke, and the drumbeat of allegations has badly shaken public confidence in the LAPD, spilling over into a general public uncertainty about the city’s overall health.

Riordan, who has steadfastly opposed the appointment of an independent citizens board that would not report to the Police Commission, said a panel named this week should satisfy the public’s thirst for review.

“The people of Los Angeles have rightfully called for an independent police commission to conduct such an investigation,” he said. “The Independent Review Panel is such a body.

“Fellow Angelenos,” Riordan added, “on this you have my word: We will investigate corruption in the Los Angeles Police Department. We will expose it, and we will eradicate it.”

The Independent Review Panel, which is made up of experts from various fields, also has the clear support of the Police Commission, which named it and held a news conference Wednesday to announce it, partly at Riordan’s urging. On Thursday, Police Chief Bernard C. Parks added his support, saying he believed the group would do its job well.

“We should give them the responsibility and hold them accountable,” said the chief, one of a dozen or so dignitaries who attended Riordan’s speech. The address, delivered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, was among the longest of Riordan’s annual State of the City speeches, lasting roughly an hour.

In recent weeks, it has been a relatively rarity to get the Police Commission, the mayor and the chief to publicly agree on high-profile matters, so that unity was notable Thursday. At the same time, however, some city officials and others remain unconvinced that the new panel can exercise sufficient independence from the Police Commission to conduct an independent inquiry that will satisfy the commission and the public.

Riordan, who was unusually gracious toward the City Council and unusually prickly toward the press corps, bristled at the news conference when reminded that some city officials--notably Councilman Joel Wachs and City Atty. James K. Hahn--are among those unconvinced that the new panel will win the public’s trust.

The panel’s oversight by the Police Commission, those officials said, will undermine its true independence. Riordan denied that and chastised Hahn and Wachs for suggesting such a thing.

“They’re certainly making the public conceive it that way by making statements like that,” Riordan said, adding that although he would not oppose any investigative effort, he did not think other agencies or panels should become involved at this point.

By contrast, during his speech Riordan appeared comfortable and at ease, drifting on and off his prepared remarks. He introduced a series of model citizens--two heroic LAPD officers and a firefighter who saved a child’s life, an enterprising school principal, a businessman, a “beautiful bureaucrat” who helped improve the Building and Safety Department and a retired teacher who volunteers his time reading to children.

The volunteer, William Crenshaw, seemed to strike a particular chord with the mayor, who interrupted his own speech to ask Crenshaw whether he remembered correctly that the two of them had read together to some children. Crenshaw nodded up at the mayor, a voracious reader who owns an extensive private library.

“Thank you, Bill,” Riordan said, smiling broadly.

A Nod to Those Who Want His Job

Riordan’s State of the City address is held in a different location each year, and generally is held amid some fanfare. This year, actor LeVar Burton acted as master of ceremonies and Riordan was introduced by Ernest Rasyidi, an articulate 18-year-old student from El Camino High School.

As in past years, the event also plays out atop the city’s political undercurrents, which were particularly in evidence this year. In the audience listening to Riordan were three men vying to succeed him: Wachs, Hahn and Steve Soboroff, a civically active commercial real estate broker who has Riordan’s endorsement.

Times poll results released in the morning showed Hahn and Wachs leading the field of would-be Riordan successors, with Soboroff well behind. But Riordan, who already has played an important role in helping Soboroff launch his fund-raising, used his remarks Thursday to help his friend and advisor.

Introducing various elected officials, friends and others, Riordan pointed out Hahn and “his worthy opponent, the next mayor, Steve Soboroff.”

Soboroff waved to the crowd, which applauded politely.

Looking ahead to the coming year, Riordan’s last full one in office, the mayor singled out this summer’s Democratic National Convention as a moment of opportunity for Los Angeles.

Riordan, a Republican, joked that Los Angeles is doing so well that “even the Democrats seem to agree. . . . I’m sorry, you Republicans. We have to talk about the second-best party in the United States.”

That drew a good-natured rumbling from the audience, which turned to applause when Riordan said the event offered Los Angeles $130 million in economic benefits and the chance to show off the city’s health and vibrancy to the world. Although he did not discuss his own role in the convention planning, Riordan has become increasingly active in that effort recently, making regular calls to raise the $35 million that the city’s host committee has agreed to provide for the event.

A Times poll published this week showed strong, continuing public affection for Riordan, and the mayor also is fondly regarded for his ownership of the Pantry, a 24-hour restaurant in downtown Los Angeles that has, in the Riordan years, become a watering hole for the city’s political elite.

As he reflected Thursday on the economic and public safety gains of the past year and on his mayoral accomplishments generally, Riordan did not miss the chance to plug his favorite restaurant.

“And now to the most important thing this year,” he said. “The Pantry got its A rating.”

Next week, Riordan will unveil his budget for the coming year, an event that is far more precise and less rhetorical than the State of the City speech. Many council members predict that this budget, which will have to grapple with the prospect of a huge civil liability growing out of the Rampart scandal, could be one of the hardest-fought of the Riordan years.