Padilla Hears Complaints on Committees

Acting to heal a racial rift on the Los Angeles City Council, Council President Alex Padilla began meeting Thursday with the group’s three African American members about complaints that he excluded them from committees dealing with housing and social service programs.

Council members Nate Holden, Mark Ridley-Thomas and Jan Perry signed a letter to Padilla formally requesting that he reconsider his decision to exclude them from the council’s Economic Development and Employment Committee and its Housing and Community Development Committee.

The two panels play key roles in deciding where the city directs affordable-housing, job creation, redevelopment and social service programs, the letter notes.

“There are more redevelopment areas south of the Santa Monica Freeway than in any other area of the city,” the council members wrote in their letter, released Thursday. The three said that made it all the more “puzzling” that they were excluded from the key committees.

Padilla’s committee assignments--the first made by the 28-year-old, newly elected council president--have stirred charges of payback and even racism among his colleagues. The three black members of the council all supported Councilwoman Ruth Galanter in her failed bid for the presidency, and many City Hall officials say they are being punished for backing the loser in that race.

Their joint appeal to Padilla is all the more notable because Ridley-Thomas and Holden are more accustomed to disagreeing on major issues than to joining forces.

The three lawmakers proposed a compromise that would not displace current appointees. Instead, they asked that Padilla expand those committees and the Education and Neighborhoods Committee to include one representative of South Los Angeles on each.

Padilla met privately Thursday with Ridley-Thomas and said he hopes to meet with Perry and Holden as early as today before deciding whether to take any action.

“No commitments were made. We are talking,” Padilla said after the session with Ridley-Thomas. Ridley-Thomas declined repeated requests for interviews.

Perry and Holden said their offices have been flooded with calls from the heads of social service and affordable-housing agencies in their districts who are worried about Padilla’s actions.

“They are concerned their funding will dry up, that they will have no access,” Perry said.

How Padilla handles the rift with his colleagues is being seen as the first major test of his leadership abilities as council president.

Steven Erie, a political science professor who studies Los Angeles politics, said it is imperative that the president reach out to his council foes.

“If he wants to run for mayor in eight years, like I hear, then this is not an auspicious way to begin wooing the black community,” Erie said.

Perry said it is unthinkable that the three council districts with some of the poorest neighborhoods would be excluded from representation on the panels.

“It’s extremely urgent that he reconsider the assignment to those critical committees,” Perry said. “Ninety-five percent of my district is in redevelopment.”

Responded Padilla, “I understand what they are saying. But all committees are important to all council districts. Not everyone can serve on all the committees.”

Padilla appointed Eric Garcetti, Nick Pacheco and Joel Wachs to the economic development panel and Wachs, Garcetti and Ed Reyes to the housing panel.

But Wachs has announced that he is quitting Oct. 1 to head an art foundation in New York, and Padilla has endorsed Assemblyman Tony Cardenas for Wachs’ 2nd Council District seat.

If Cardenas is elected, he would probably take Wachs’ place on the two committees.

Asked whether he plans to make any changes, Padilla said, “Not at this time, but I am open to hear what they have to say.”