New Faces, Old Hands Reflect Mayor’s Agenda

In dozens of appointments to city commissions, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has signaled plans to remake City Hall by choosing would-be reformers, environmentalists and other outsiders for panels that have long been criticized for falling short in their watchdog roles.

More than two-thirds of the 72 people Villaraigosa has chosen have never been commissioners, which the new mayor says reflects his desire to seek fresh ideas. But balancing idealism with expertise, Villaraigosa has also recalled some government veterans from years of exile from City Hall to help him advance his ambitious agenda.

“It’s a very eclectic mix, much like his electoral coalition,” said Cal State Fullerton political scientist Raphael Sonenshein. “It’s particularly strong in bringing in environmentalists and people who have been critics of city government. That will buy him some time in solving some of the problems.”

The city’s mayor has the power to fill 312 seats on 55 commissions and boards, which oversee city decisions as mundane as allowing red carpets to be rolled out on Hollywood sidewalks and as far-reaching as deciding how to renovate Los Angeles International Airport.

In the three months since his election, Villaraigosa has overhauled the most powerful of the many panels, largely stripping them of the appointees of his predecessor, James K. Hahn.

“Opening City Hall to all Angelenos will be a key to my administration’s success,” Villaraigosa said. “I’m building a team of the best, brightest and most diverse people.” Although many names are new, some observers say it remains to be seen whether much will change at City Hall.

Villaraigosa, like Hahn, has rewarded political supporters with commission posts. Of his appointees, 58% have written checks to his campaign committees.

“He’s appointing the people who gave him money,” said Doug Epperhart, president of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council. “He’s making the appointments the same way 90% of the politicians do it.”

Compared with Hahn, the new mayor so far has appointed higher percentages of Latinos (31% versus 22%) and Asian Americans (15% versus 9%), and lower percentages of whites and African Americans.

Under Hahn, a disproportionate percentage of commissioners, 26%, came from the city’s Westside. Villaraigosa has actually increased that disparity, drawing 34% of his appointments from the two council districts in that area.

The mayor has recruited more commissioners from his former council district in northeast L.A. than Hahn did, but he has turned less frequently than Hahn to the San Fernando Valley.

Councilman Ed Reyes complained that Hahn did not do enough to ensure that his appointees reflected the city’s ethnic and geographic diversity, but his spokesman, Tony Perez, said the councilman is satisfied so far with Villaraigosa’s choices.

Villaraigosa, who was backed by the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters, has fulfilled their expectations by appointing environmental activists to panels overseeing departments with poor records on pollution, including the Department of Water and Power, the airport department, the port and the Department of Public Works.

The mayor’s five appointments to the DWP board include two respected environmentalists: Mary Nichols, the former secretary of the California Resources Agency; and David Nahai, a member of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Villaraigosa pleased many harbor-area residents upset about air pollution from the nation’s largest seaport by appointing a board that includes environmental attorney Jerilyn Lopez Mendoza and S. David Freeman, a former DWP head who has been active in the renewable-energy industry.

“They are probably as good as I’ve ever seen in terms of the environment,” said Epperhart, the San Pedro neighborhood council president.

Villaraigosa has not shied from turning to strong-willed independent voices who have long tried to make themselves heard at City Hall.

Garrett Biggs, a political consultant, said naming outsiders carries the risk that a commissioner could end up a loose cannon, not necessarily toeing the Villaraigosa party line. “On the other side,” he said, “you get fresh ideas.”

The mayor’s appointments to the Airport Commission include Valeria Velasco, a Playa del Rey attorney who was president of a community group that sued to challenge the $11-billion LAX modernization plan.

For the South Valley Planning Commission, the mayor chose Gordon Murley, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization. The consummate outsider, Murley has been a fierce critic of the Planning Department for three decades, once even filing a lawsuit accusing the agency of not properly planning for traffic congestion.

“By picking people who don’t cower, he is going to get people who will ask the tough questions,” Murley said. “It will start to shake the top branches of the tree.”

Los Angeles civil rights leaders who felt their voices were not always heard by the city’s Police Commission are also optimistic.

Villaraigosa’s appointments to that panel include John Mack, former head of the Los Angeles Urban League, who describes himself as a longtime “constructive critic” of the department.

“It’s to the mayor’s credit that he reached out,” Mack said. “The inclusive nature of his appointments will mean a rich new diversity of opinions and ideas, to the benefit of the city.”

The mayor also appointed attorney Andrea Ordin, a member of the Christopher Commission that recommended sweeping changes in the Los Angeles Police Department after the 1991 police beating of Rodney King; and attorney Anthony Pacheco, a former federal prosecutor who was counsel to the independent panel formed after the Rampart corruption scandal to look at the department’s institutional failures.

Geraldine Washington, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP, complained that past police commissions have not been independent enough.

“They tried to be fair, but it seemed they were too much in support of the mayor and chief,” she said. “Certainly the appointment of Mr. Mack gives the board credibility.”

Villaraigosa has attempted to strike a balance on commissions that are important both to organized labor and business. Villaraigosa is a former teachers union organizer, but he has also reassured business leaders that he plans to run the city as a centrist.

“The appointments seem fairly balanced for the most part,” said Victor Franco, vice president of the Central City Assn., a downtown business group.

Business leaders, however, are waiting to see what Villaraigosa does with the panels that most affect the economy, including the city planning commission and redevelopment board.

Robin Kramer, the mayor’s chief of staff, promised that both will be balanced between development and neighborhood interests.

Franco said he is pleased that Villaraigosa has reached back into past administrations for experienced commissioners.

Those returning to City Hall include retirement board appointee Adolfo Nodal, who was general manager of the Cultural Affairs Department during Richard Riordan’s administration; Library Commission appointee Robert Chick, who was chairman of the Airport Commission during Tom Bradley’s administration; Nichols, the DWP board appointee, who held the same position in the Bradley administration; and Airport Commission appointee Fernando Torres-Gil, a commissioner during the Bradley and Riordan administrations.

“The expertise he has put on these commissions is great,” Franco said. “I think they are going to stay away from more political decisions and stick to the issues.”

Others are not so sure.

Of his 72 appointments, 42 have contributed $74,800 to Villaraigosa’s political accounts, according to campaign finance documents on file with the city Ethics Commission.

Villaraigosa’s appointees to the most powerful panels, for the most part, are campaign contributors.

His seven appointees to the Airport Commission and three appointees to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board donated to Villaraigosa’s campaign committees.

Four of the five appointees to the DWP board contributed to Villaraigosa’s mayoral campaign this year, while a fifth wrote a check for the 2001 campaign.

Tracy Westen, chief executive of the Center for Governmental Studies, a Los Angeles watchdog group, and others say the practice of turning to campaign bankrollers for commission appointments taints the process. “It creates the appearance of a possible link, even when there may not be one,” Westen said.

But Kramer said contributions to Villaraigosa were not considered when she screened potential commissioners and the mayor settled on his choices.

“That was not a part of the dynamic at all,” she said.

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New team

A look at Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s 72 recent appointments to city commissions:

Sex

Men: 54% (39)

Women: 46% (33)

Race/ethnicity

Whites: 42% (30)

Latinos: 31% (22)

Asians and Pacific Islanders: 15% (11)

Blacks: 13% (9)

Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 because of rounding.

Source: Los Angeles mayor’s office