Rivals Criticize Hahn for Missing Mayoral Debates

Recipe for political grief: Appear to be a top contender for mayor. Raise a lot of money. Fail to attend debates with your opponents.

Candidate James K. Hahn missed his second straight mayoral forum Friday morning, giving several of his rivals the opportunity to criticize him for being absent and for his policies as Los Angeles city attorney.

Hahn took hits for not doing more to limit the city’s soaring liability costs, for allegedly not caring enough to crack down on slum housing and for failing to curtail worker’s compensation expenses. A night earlier, an opponent tagged him for missing several debates.

Though the city attorney took the brunt of the critiques, his opponents also took hits on their initiatives--from building light-rail lines to adding 1,000 buses to the region’s bus fleet to levying fees on developers to build low-income housing.

Hahn said he couldn’t attend the debates because of other commitments. In fact, all the candidates have been overwhelmed with invitations to appear together. In the final weeks leading up to the April 10 election there have sometimes been two debates a day. Other candidates also have missed forums in order to raise money and attend their own events.

But since several recent polls have shown Hahn leading the field, the campaign’s dynamic has changed. When the city attorney missed the pair of debates this week sponsored by large, prestigious organizations, his opponents cut him no slack, as they might have earlier in the campaign.

At a forum Thursday afternoon--sponsored by the Los Angeles County Bar Assn. and Occidental College--rival Steve Soboroff chided the absent Hahn: “Jim, come on down. We want to see you.” Soboroff added later: “I think he may be worried about the exposure he gets in a situation where you need to show leadership.”

On Friday morning--before the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. in Studio City--Hahn was again missing. Responding to the first question of the day--about how to cut the city’s workers’ compensation costs--commercial real estate broker Soboroff again took a shot at Hahn.

“The answer is in having our city attorney’s office hopefully defend these cases instead of writing these blank checks,” Soboroff said. He also drew the audience’s attention to a Times story, which reported that a significant amount of Hahn’s fund-raising base comes from attorneys whose firms have done business with the city.

“People who get big contracts with the city and settle big lawsuits give big contributions to the city attorney,” Soboroff said after the debate. “It’s outrageous and egregious.”

Asked to respond, Hahn campaign manager Matt Middlebrook called that charge “absurd.” He said workers’ compensation costs began to skyrocket after Mayor Richard Riordan contracted the legal and administrative work for the police and fire departments to private firms. “As the mayor’s senior advisor, I wonder where Steve Soboroff was when they made that mistake,” Middlebrook said.

Former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa also used the workers’ compensation question to hit Hahn for not doing enough to limit the city’s overall liabilities.

“I want to work with a new, aggressive city attorney,” Villaraigosa said, “who understands their responsibility to cut the liability in the city.”

A short time later, the candidates were asked what they would do to build more affordable housing. State Controller Kathleen Connell pledged to set aside more money in the city’s new housing trust fund and to streamline permitting of low-cost units. But she, too, added a dig at Hahn.

Connell said more housing could be made available “by having a city attorney who cares about enforcement against slum housing.”

Hahn, in fact, has been touting his work to combat slum housing. His campaign credits the city attorney with locking up about 150 slumlords, having many sentenced to live in their own substandard units. Middlebrook said thousands of units of housing have been made habitable because of Hahn’s work.

Hahn was not the only target of barbs Friday. Several of the candidates’ pet proposals were subjected to scrutiny in front of the group of Valley business leaders.

Villaraigosa has been one of the most outspoken in the field for building low-income housing, saying he would consider imposing a “linkage” fee to have housing developers provide seed money for construction of cheaper units.

Rival Xavier Becerra jabbed at that idea. “If you want to drive business away from the city, then raise their taxes before they push even a single shovel into the ground,” Becerra said. “We should make a partnership. Don’t force [fees] down people’s throats.”

Soboroff was asked skeptically about his plan for putting light-rail lines along some of the city’s busiest freeways, including the Ventura Freeway and the Santa Monica Freeway. The businessman said bond sales could pay the bulk of construction costs.

But his opponents weren’t buying. “We don’t have the money for it unless you raise taxes,” Villaraigosa said, “and I’m sure Steve doesn’t want to do that.” Connell expressed the same criticism, adding that her idea to increase the Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus fleet to 3,000 vehicles from 2,000 is a better idea.

Soboroff scoffed at that. “If you have 3,000 buses on the streets,” he said, “we might as well get rid of all our cars. The way is not to clog up the freeways with a lot more buses.”

Hahn’s campaign denied that he is ducking debates, noting that he has a full schedule of other public events. His representatives said he will attend a forum Tuesday, though fund-raising and other events will prevent him from being at UCLA on April 4, when the only widely televised debate of the campaign is scheduled.

Julie Wong, the Hahn campaign spokeswoman, said: “He is not hiding out.”