2 Challengers Intensify Attacks on Hahn’s Record, Ethical Standards

Two of Mayor James K. Hahn’s challengers stepped up their attacks on his record and ethical standards Tuesday as one proposed toughening campaign money laws and the other unveiled a plan to hire new police officers.

Taking shots at Hahn from the steps of City Hall were Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, who released his ethics reform proposal, and Sherman Oaks lawyer Bob Hertzberg, who put out his police hiring plan hours later.

The verbal assaults, which came as Hahn raised money at a Sacramento reception held by a lobbyist and four lawmakers, underscored the dominance of ethics and crime as themes for the candidates in the March 8 election.

Hahn touts the city’s drop in crime as a top achievement. But he has faced criticism from opponents for doing too little to hire more police officers. And he is running for reelection under the cloud of local and federal investigations into city contracting under his administration.

Hertzberg, who has tried to appeal to the city’s more conservative voters, called for expanding the Los Angeles Police Department by 3,000 officers without raising taxes. His campaign put the annual cost at $300 million, but Hertzberg declined to say what services he would cut to pay for expanding the police force.

Hertzberg also went on the attack, accusing Hahn of neglecting the need for new police officers as the city’s budget has grown.

“Mayor Hahn has given away the store to just about every special interest group in the city except one: public safety,” he said.

Hahn, who promised during the 2001 election to expand the police force, has urged the City Council to put on the May ballot a measure that would impose a half-cent sales tax increase to pay for more officers.

Kam Kuwata, a senior campaign advisor to Hahn, faulted Hertzberg and Villaraigosa, both former speakers of the state Assembly, for denying Los Angeles the money it needed to expand the police force.

“Mayor Hahn would like to add more cops on the street,” Kuwata said. “We are blocked because of the actions taken by Antonio Villaraigosa and Bob Hertzberg in Sacramento.”

Playing on the unpopularity of the state Legislature, Hahn has used the “Sacramento politicians” label to respond to nearly all attacks by Hertzberg and Villaraigosa.

On the City Hall steps, Villaraigosa outlined his ethics reform plan Tuesday in remarks to reporters who gathered amid lights and camera gear set up for the shooting of a fictional news conference for an episode of NBC’s “The West Wing.”

“I don’t need to tell you that this is the most investigated administration since Frank Shaw in the 1930s,” said Villaraigosa, referring to the Los Angeles mayor who was recalled from office in 1938 amid allegations of rampant corruption at City Hall.

Villaraigosa pointed out that Hahn, who has denied any wrongdoing, has been raising money for a legal defense fund.

He criticized Hahn for the alleged overbilling of city agencies by a public relations firm with close ties to the mayor. An executive at the firm, Fleishman- Hillard, has been indicted on federal fraud charges.

Faulting Hahn for “excuses and equivocations,” Villaraigosa said: “We must understand that ethical lapses are not victimless crimes. They have real consequences for the people of our city. The millions funneled to Fleishman-Hillard could have put 150 police officers on our streets.”

Villaraigosa’s proposal would ban campaign donors from receiving no-bid city contracts and put new limits on spending by independent groups on a candidate’s behalf.

Such groups would be required to disclose 30 days before an election how they planned to spend their money, a step that Villaraigosa said would “eliminate last-minute negative mailers and other unethical campaign practices.”

When he ran for mayor in 2001, Villaraigosa was the target of ferocious attack mail in the runoff against Hahn.

The Eastside councilman also signed a pledge to take a dozen steps on his first day in office to restore public trust in City Hall, including the removal of all lobbyists from city boards and commissions.

“I’m signing this pledge, because I want voters to know that I will demand clean government from the very first day to my very last day in office,” he said.

Kuwata, Hahn’s campaign advisor, scoffed at Villaraigosa’s remarks and challenged him to push the mayor’s proposed overhaul of city ethics laws through the council.

“It’s been sitting there because the council won’t take it up,” Kuwata said. “Villaraigosa can just introduce it. We don’t have to wait for the election.”

Among other things, Hahn would bar contractors from donating to candidates or raising money for them, and prohibit campaign consultants from lobbying city officials.

Another mayoral candidate, state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sun Valley), called Villaraigosa’s proposal “better late than never,” but dismissed it as less effective than his own. Alarcon has proposed a ballot measure that would, among other things, ban city contractors and developers from donating more than $100 to city candidates.

A spokeswoman for a fifth candidate, Councilman Bernard C. Parks, had no immediate comment on the new proposals.

Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a nonpartisan Los Angeles research organization, said the candidates’ focus on ethics could ultimately lead to improvements in the city’s already strong campaign-finance rules.

“Usually, out of scandal come good reforms,” he said, recalling that voters approved the city’s current system in 1990 after an uproar over Mayor Tom Bradley’s personal dealings with a bank doing business with the city.