Hahn and Padilla: City Hall’s Strange Bedfellows

Political allies James K. Hahn and Alex Padilla can hardly be called the Dynamic Duo. The new mayor and the new City Council president are probably better described as the Odd Couple.

Hahn, the seasoned City Hall veteran, has already slowed the pulse of downtown with his soporific, if not downright narcoleptic, style. Meanwhile, the new kid on the block, 28-year-old Padilla, has worked up such a hyper-kinetic frenzy, you have to wonder if he’s missed a couple of Ritalin doses.

But the sharp contrast in style between the two should not distract from the fact that the Hahn-Padilla team now dominates city politics. It’s important to ask just what these two players, in their very different ways, jointly intend for the next four years. The seating of Tom Bradley 28 years ago dramatically proclaimed a new era of multiracial politics, which would produce, L.A.’s first black mayor proclaimed, a “world-class city.” His successor, Richard Riordan, in his own bumbling way, aggressively toyed with the school board, tangled with the City Council, and championed city charter reform, struggling to leave his imprimatur on the sprawling, ethereal Big Nowhere of Los Angeles.

Hahn directly benefits from the enhanced mayoral powers granted by the charter reforms signed into law by his predecessor. But he’s given no indication of how he plans to use them. Since taking office two months ago, Hahn’s highest-profile public appearance was a guest stint serving up steamed wieners at La Brea Avenue’s legendary Pink’s hot dogs. That’s not to say he doesn’t have an agenda. Look at his appointment of ho-hum apparatchiks to city commissions, and note his lack of any thematic initiatives, and it becomes clear that Hahn’s passion begins and ends with defense of the status quo.

Hahn owes his election to a curious coalition of African Americans, public employee unions, conservative suburban whites and a phalanx of entrepreneurial Latino pols. To hang on to this electoral base, Hahn must do what he does best--offend no one. But appearing as everything to everybody can easily degenerate into a dreary game of being nothing to anybody.

At least there’s staunch Hahn ally Padilla to keep us all from descending into terminal dropsy. Dubbed by the Los Angeles Downtown News as “Best Local Political Mover of the Millennium,” Padilla wooed the incoming crop of elected newbies and, on July 3, got himself elected youngest City Council president in history. No sooner had the china been swept up when Padilla struck again. In a move rife with either arrogance or naivete--or both--Padilla flexed his newly acquired council clout and named his own appointments to powerful committees, skipping over all three of his African American colleagues--an omission he later had to correct, again with much press fanfare. Padilla then rattled the San Fernando Valley secessionists (many of whom supported Hahn) when he bumped Councilman Hal Bernson from a panel studying the issue and replaced him with secession foe Cindy Miscikowski.

Coming from humble immigrant Latino origins and making it all the way through M.I.T. and then on into the top government echelon of America’s No.2 city before age 30 offers plenty reason to be proud--as well as to seek and receive notice. Padilla leads a pack of younger Latinos who have eschewed the protest-driven politics of the previous generation, opting to fight within the centers of powers instead of against them. That’s a natural move for the offspring of a Latino community that finds itself ever more assimilated into the mainstream. And that’s what makes him such an important political partner with the mayor, despite their stylistic contrast.

If Padilla appears superficially a trailblazer for a new politics, he is actually more of an insider-in-training. Two years ago, he was elected with the strong support of labor. Since then, he has thrown himself into coalition-building that has been much more vertical than horizontal. Now a darling of the corporate-financed Democratic Leadership Council, Padilla this spring topped the “business slate” of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. In spite of his tender age and experience, he has skillfully reached sideways to the suits, lobbyists and deal makers who haunt the downtown high-rises. He has yet to prove his ability to stretch downward and out to help fashion the sort of cross-city, cross-cultural alliances that Los Angeles will need to succeed, especially in what appears to be the rocky economic times ahead.

That’s too bad. Padilla possesses formidable knowledge and intelligence. He has also demonstrated something painfully lacking among most elected officials: a real courage to lead. In his case, to even smash up the furniture when necessary. His willingness to boldly break with the prior generation’s brand of politics should be applauded. Bundled all together, that’s just way too much talent to be squandered in the unconditional service of Hahn’s cautious lethargy.