Wachs Can Give L.A. a Gift

Joel Wachs is not going to have City Hall to kick around anymore. The 30-year veteran of the Los Angeles City Council announced this week that he will resign in October to take a job with an arts foundation in New York. City government will lose one of its chief critics and Los Angeles one of its most intriquing public figures.

A self-styled populist with an independent streak, Wachs made his reputation as a fiscal watchdog. His name became synonymous with Staples Center, not as a booster of the downtown sports arena but as a critic of secret negotiations surrounding its construction and of taxpayer subsidies in general.

Forcing the Staples negotiations into the open was Wachs at his best. Using the deal to exploit resentment toward downtown among his San Fernando Valley constituents was Wachs at his worst. He could be maddeningly opportunistic, more interested in grandstanding than in solving the public problems he so skillfully identified. He managed to win reelection to the City Council time after time by campaigning against the government he’d been a part of for years.

Wachs has become so known for things he has opposed that it’s easy to overlook what he has supported and accomplished. The Republican-turned-independent wrote the city’s rent control law and its law forbidding discrimination against people with HIV. He championed civil rights and created the city’s arts endowment, helping it grow from $3 million to $17 million a year.

His support for the arts may be Wachs’ most visible legacy, which makes his new job as president of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts fitting. Wachs wanted a different job--mayor of Los Angeles--but after two earlier tries and a disappointing fourth-place finish in April, he’s moving on.

Wachs has one more chance to save Los Angeles some money. The city can’t schedule a special election to fill the remaining two years of his term until he vacates his seat. If he does so now, that election could be combined with one already scheduled for September to fill the seat left vacant by the death of council President John Ferraro.

Wachs said he planned to stay on through the September special election to smooth the way for a largely reconstituted City Council, but one election would be less disruptive to the new council than two. Plus Wachs could save the city much of the $560,000 cost for a second special election in January--a fitting legacy for a watchdog.