Swarm Tactics Bring Scant Results

It was nearly impossible to turn a corner in the state Capitol on Wednesday without running into a Los Angeles city official.

There was Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, gliding up and down the elevators in the stately white building, popping in for 20-minute meetings to warn lawmakers that some proposed solutions to the budget crisis could mean reducing the LAPD by 750 officers.

And there was newly elected Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, the former speaker of the Assembly, striding confidently through his old stomping grounds, stopping to shout out a “Hey Baby!” to a familiar face and then disappearing into offices to lobby his former colleagues.

Also making the rounds through the warren of offices were City Controller Laura Chick and eight other City Council members: President Alex Padilla, Greig Smith, Dennis Zine, Cindy Miscikowski, Martin Ludlow, Ed Reyes, Janice Hahn and Tony Cardenas, himself the former Assembly budget chairman.

They wanted to meet face to face with lawmakers to deliver their message: Don’t slash money to cities to solve the $38-billion budget gap.

“What we’re worried about is out of sight, out of mind,” Mayor Hahn said as he and council members squeezed into the office of Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles).

Legislators greeted them warmly, on occasion hauling around extra chairs to accommodate all their Angeleno visitors. But in a capital deadlocked with partisan bickering and political maneuvering around the attempted recall of Gov. Gray Davis, lawmakers could not make any promises.

“They don’t have to convince me of anything ... the problem is getting a consensus here in Sacramento,” said Assemblyman Keith Richman (R-Northridge) after Villaraigosa, Smith and Zine left his office. “The Legislature ... is in political gridlock.”

Instead, both Democrats and Republicans thanked the city officials for coming, pledged to heed their concerns, and then, in many cases, pointed fingers of blame across the aisle at the other party for the crisis.

Later in the day, the mayor met privately with Davis and the two held a joint news conference calling for quick passage of the budget. “I have not been able to secure the kinds of assurances that would give me the comfort that there’s not going to be any pain to L.A. or the other cities across California,” the mayor said in summing up the day’s meetings.

“What I’ve been presented with is, it can only get worse if there’s going to be inaction on the budget,” Hahn added.

Steven Frates, senior fellow at the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College, said it would be unrealistic for city leaders to think they could turn the tide of the budget crisis.

As mayor of a city of 3.9 million, Hahn represents far more Californians than any single legislator, but the purse strings are firmly in the state’s control.

“They’re going up as supplicants,” Frates said. “They’re begging and pleading.”

Still, the gang from City Hall said they considered the trip well worth the 5 a.m. wake-up call to catch their flights -- and not just because they got out of sitting through Wednesday’s regularly scheduled council meeting, which was canceled on account of the field trip.

“I don’t think the state budget crisis has been resolved just because we’ve been here,” Padilla said. “But I think we have been successful in how we have conveyed the message that any further cuts to Los Angeles can jeopardize public safety.”

Singly and in groups, in hallways, offices and over soggy hamburgers in the depths of the building, Los Angeles officials made the point again and again. Chick joked that she wanted to set the message to rap music and turn the lobbying effort into a traveling musical performance.

“That means more victims because there won’t be anyone to protect them,” Zine told Assemblywoman Cindy Montanez (D-San Fernando) as Mayor Hahn passed her a chart showing the impacts of proposed cuts on the Los Angeles Police Department.

Janice Hahn, the mayor’s sister, turned to Zine, one of only two Republicans on the 15-member council, and told him he needed to carry the message to Republican lawmakers.

Other lawmakers stressed a similar point to the whole City Hall delegation, telling them it was high time they had shown their faces in Sacramento.

Mayor Hahn’s office keeps three full-time staff members in Sacramento, but Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) -- himself a former L.A. councilman -- said Wednesday’s performance demonstrated that the city needs to be more visible.

“We wish you’d come more often,” Goldberg, another City Council alum, told the mayor and council members. Lawmakers said representatives from smaller California cities visit frequently.

“And every moment they’re here, they’re trying to take money from you,” Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Culver City) said.

Padilla said he had taken the message to heart and planned to be back: “Out of sight is out of mind in the state capital, and unless we’re here regularly and vocally, we stand to be left out.”

Times staff writer Peter Nicholas contributed to this report.