Safety Issues Dominate 1st Debate

In a spirited first debate between the two finalists for mayor of Los Angeles, former legislator Antonio Villaraigosa turned the tables on City Atty. James K. Hahn Tuesday, accusing him of “jeopardizing public safety” by backing a compacted three-day-a-week work schedule for some police officers.

Hahn, in turn, argued that it was Villaraigosa whose plans would put the public at risk. According to Hahn, Villaraigosa’s proposal to expand the region’s bus fleet would cut substantially into the money that otherwise would be used to police buses and light-rail lines. Hahn also accused his rival of failing to back laws that cracked down on gang violence.

Those exchanges--and others on the issue of how best to provide law enforcement to a city in the midst of a modest but troubling increase in crime--were the most animated of the hourlong debate and emphasize the intense importance both candidates place on demonstrating solid public safety credentials.

The debate, the first of six between the two men before the June 5 runoff, was broadcast live on public radio, and shown after a brief delay on the city’s cable television station, potentially reaching as many as 600,000 homes.

Both candidates have been waging an intense contest for moderate to conservative voters who supported businessman Steve Soboroff and Councilman Joel Wachs in last month’s primary.

Even after the debate at USC’s Davidson Conference Center, the candidates and their handlers continued to spar over public safety. Hahn’s camp produced a Times article to buttress its argument that Villaraigosa had once supported the same three-day schedule that he was attacking Hahn for backing. Villaraigosa’s aides said he has consistently supported a four-day work week for some police, not the three-day schedule.

The law enforcement focus cropped up repeatedly during the forum, with Hahn repeating at least three times that he is a four-term prosecutor. As city attorney, part of Hahn’s job is to oversee the prosecution of low-level criminal offenses. Villaraigosa talked about the multi-jurisdictional crime team he helped to create and fund when he was Assembly speaker.

Villaraigosa relished the opportunity to shift a public safety critique toward Hahn. In the four weeks since he and Hahn emerged from a large field and into a two-man runoff, Villaraigosa has battled back against accusations that he has been soft on crime as a legislator.

Villaraigosa told the USC audience and those listening on the radio, however, that Hahn’s recent pledge to the city’s police union proves that it is the city attorney who would be less supportive of public safety.

“How many of us get a three-day work week?” asked Villaraigosa, the former speaker of the state Assembly. “The idea you are going to get more policing with a three-day work week doesn’t pass the smell test, in my mind. I wanted the [union] endorsement, but I wasn’t willing to jeopardize public safety and take hundreds of officers off the street.”

Hahn defended his support of the compressed police schedule, noting that they had been adopted successfully by other law enforcement agencies. He said the LAPD’s most pressing problem is the flight of veteran officers and that work weeks of three 12-hour days would help keep police on the job.

“I think you can have a combination of those schedules, and we need to do anything we can to keep officers in the LAPD,” Hahn said. “The studies show there has been no deterioration in response time or in the quality of work in the departments that have tried it.”

The intense importance of the question to both camps was evident as soon as the debate ended, with the two camps continuing to press their case with the media.

“It’s clear, the main distinction between us is that I want to keep cops on the streets of Los Angeles and Jim Hahn wants to take them off,” Villaraigosa said.

Hahn arrived minutes later and noted that Villaraigosa had told the union, the Police Protective League, last July that he would support the 3-12 schedule. “Either Mr. Villaraigosa has amnesia or he was trying to mislead people.” Hahn said. “I think Mr. Villaraigosa owes the public an apology. . . . I do not believe in taking officers off the street. I want to put more officers on the street.”

Hahn had taken his own opportunity a few minutes earlier to turn debate moderator Warren Olney’s question about transit plans back to the crime issue.

Hahn doubted that Villaraigosa’s ambitious plan to expand bus service and reduce fares would work. He also charged that the LAPD and Sheriff’s Department would lose $57 million that they use to police buses and Metro Rail trains.

“I don’t like where he is getting the money,” Hahn said. “I don’t think you want to take too many officers off the buses or . . . this will not be a line that people want to ride.”

Villaraigosa did not respond directly to the claim, but argued that his plan got most of its funding by assuring that Los Angeles got its share of regional transit dollars--shifting money away from some other municipal bus lines.

After a diversion of several minutes to discuss issues ranging from transportation to electric power, both candidates used the one question they asked each other to return to crime and punishment.

Villaraigosa reiterated his attack on the compressed work schedule for police, and Hahn asked the former legislator to explain why he voted not to renew the Street Terrorism Enforcement Protection Act--an anti-gang law that Hahn helped write.

Villaraigosa said he disagreed with the law’s approach but backed the multi-agency anti-gang program known as CLEAR. He then added: “You have been the city attorney for 15 years and the problem of gangs is worse than ever. I think we need new leadership.”

Hahn responded: “The reality is the gang problem is a lot better than it was. And it’s because of tough laws like the anti-gang law that i wrote; it’s because of the anti-gang injunctions that I developed as a pioneering legal tool.” Hahn concluded by saying: “For you to say it’s worse than ever--you need to go out to some of the neighborhoods.”

City Terrace native Villaraigosa, a onetime street tough, jabbed back: “I was born and raised in those neighborhoods, my friend, and I don’t have to go to visit them; I have lived there my whole life.”

Hahn also is a native of Los Angeles, having grown up in the Crenshaw district.

Much of the rest of the forum consisted of a polite discussion of an array of issues.

On the subject of traffic, which was highlighted this week by a new report concluding that Los Angeles has the worst congestion in the nation, Hahn said the city had to move expeditiously to use money it has already been allocated by the state and federal government. He pointed to a traffic signal synchronization project for the San Fernando Valley, saying the city’s Department of Transportation has been to slow to get the signals linked. (Transportation officials have said that the program is on schedule.)

The city attorney also called for increasing the size of the bus fleet, adding more carpool lanes on freeways and improving timing on left-turn signals.

Villaraigosa advocated more sweeping changes, saying he would try to get the Metropolitan Transportationt Authority to buy 850 new buses, 300 more than Hahn. He said that the increased fleet, combined with a fare lowered from $1.35 to 50 cents, would help increase ridership and get 175,000 drivers out of their cars.

Both candidates also used their answers to praise Mayor Richard Riordan and, in Villaraigosa’s case, former mayoral candidate Steve Soboroff, who was defeated in April.

Hahn said he had worked with Riordan to help create neighborhood councils. Villaraigosa praised Riordan’s business retention teams and invoked Soboroff’s name in laying out his transportation plans. The endorsements of the two Republicans, are considered critical in luring voters on the Westside and in the Valley.