Villaraigosa’s Victory Tour Is Marred by Violence at School

On a postelection victory tour rich in symbolism, Antonio Villaraigosa reaffirmed his pledge Wednesday to hire more police officers, stimulate job growth and repair the city public schools when he becomes the 41st mayor of Los Angeles in July.

“I’m one of those guys that likes to get to work right away,” said the councilman in South Los Angeles a day after winning a landslide victory over Mayor James K. Hahn.

But in a stark reminder of the immensity of the challenges Villaraigosa faces, he had to scrap plans to focus on school reform Wednesday afternoon at a Woodland Hills high school when the campus was disrupted by a fight.

Villaraigosa instead confronted frantic Taft High School parents, some of whom screamed and banged on the front door after they had been barred from entering after police arrived.

Afterward, Villaraigosa acknowledged that the disturbance, which school officials said was not racially motivated, underscored the work ahead.

“Is the fact that people’s feelings are so raw indicative of the challenges that we face right now on the issue of racial violence in our schools?” he said. “The answer is yes.”

Villaraigosa said he would work to increase police patrols around the city’s schools.

The former state Assembly speaker ousted Hahn by 17 percentage points after capturing 58.7% of the vote in a bitter rematch between the two veteran politicians.

Hahn, who did not publicly concede defeat Tuesday night, congratulated Villaraigosa at a noon news conference at his Miracle Mile campaign headquarters and said he did not expect to run for office again.

“I think that part of my career is probably at an end now,” said the mayor, who spent most of his remarks highlighting his achievements, including his work reducing crime and righting the Police Department.

“I’m looking forward to the private sector now, finding something that interests me,” said Hahn, who added that he was “very excited” that the city would have its first Latino mayor in 133 years.

Villaraigosa’s historic win attracted international media attention Wednesday.

He received congratulatory calls from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Democratic Sens. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts and Hillary Clinton of New York, and numerous members of Congress, according to the campaign. And although some local leaders continued to stumble over his name, the mayor-elect was followed by City Council members and cameras for most of the day.

In a meticulously crafted series of events, the mayor-elect downplayed his new status as a national Latino leader and focused instead on reinforcing the broad themes of his nine-month campaign.

He began his day by meeting with Police Chief William J. Bratton at Parker Center to discuss his plans to hire more police officers.

And at stops in Crenshaw and Woodland Hills, he stressed jobs and education, issues important to the city’s African American community and the more conservative San Fernando Valley.

The two areas largely rejected Villaraigosa when he lost his 2001 mayoral bid, but helped him topple Hahn this time.

Although he provided few specific plans for his first days in office, Villaraigosa did say that after taking office July 1, he would immediately remove lobbyists from city commissions and would ask his department heads and commissioners to sign an ethics pledge.

The City Charter gives the newly elected mayor the power to replace nearly all of the about 350 appointees to city boards and commissions as well as most city department heads.

Wednesday’s rosy pledges were tempered, however, by the school violence that marred Villaraigosa’s first day as mayor-elect.

Initial reports suggested that Taft High, which serves some black students bused from South Los Angeles, was experiencing the same kind of racial brawling between blacks and Latinos that had inflamed some South Los Angeles schools in recent weeks.

Fearful parents swarmed to the school, only to be locked out by school officials. Some parents beat their fists on the front door and others shouted at school officials who were trying to calm them.

Villaraigosa rushed to the school when news of the violence reached him at a South Los Angeles media event.

With a pledge to make education one of his top priorities, the mayor-elect has set high expectations for increased cooperation between the city and the Los Angeles Unified School District, and for an effort to boost student achievement and lower dropout rates.

Half of the people who voted for Villaraigosa identified education as a top concern, according to a Times exit poll.

School board President Jose Huizar, a Villaraigosa supporter, said Tuesday night that he expected the new mayor to have a serious impact.

“For four years we’ve had a mayor who has been on the sidelines. Antonio wants to get involved,” said Huizar, who is contemplating a run for Villaraigosa’s council seat.

Villaraigosa, Huizar and schools Supt. Roy Romer had been scheduled to meet at Taft on Wednesday afternoon to talk about ways of working together.

Villaraigosa’s visit also followed his promise to be a constant presence in the Valley.

But rather than talking about cooperation, the three men instead worked to allay fears about racial tensions at the school and to talk up their commitment to school safety.

School officials later said the fight, which reportedly started among ninth-graders, was not racially motivated.

Villaraigosa, who was accompanied by Councilmen Jack Weiss, Bernard C. Parks and Dennis Zine, said at Taft that it was important to “calm the waters,” a message he stated repeatedly in English and Spanish.

The mayor-elect also said that he wanted the city to deploy more LAPD officers to ensure “safe passage” to and from schools, a plan Hahn had proposed after earlier school violence.

“I’ll have a zero tolerance for racial violence,” Villaraigosa said.

Viva Agadrani, a parent who was at the school Wednesday, said somebody needed to act. “Is he going to do anything differently?” Agadrani asked. “What we have now is not working.”

The mayor-elect had a smoother time before he got to the school, meeting with Bratton at Parker Center and traveling to a job training center in South Los Angeles.

As a councilman, Villaraigosa turned aside Bratton’s pleas to put a sales tax measure before city voters to pay for more police officers. And during the campaign, Hahn tried to suggest that Villaraigosa could not be trusted to reduce crime.

Times polls consistently showed that reducing crime was the one issue likely voters trusted Hahn more than Villaraigosa to handle.

After meeting with Bratton, the mayor-elect stressed his commitment to working with the law enforcement leader, who was hired by Hahn two years ago and was widely credited with dramatically reducing crime.

“We discussed working closely over the next four years to provide the LAPD with the officers he needs to significantly expand community policing and reduce crime,” Villaraigosa said.

The mayor-elect said he would work to double the number of gang officers and expand neighborhood bicycle and foot patrols, as well as create a city department focused on crime prevention.

During the campaign, Villaraigosa pledged to expand the Police Department by 1,300 officers, in part by pushing an increase in the county sales tax, though he has not specified how he will do that.

In South Los Angeles on Wednesday, Villaraigosa reemphasized another platform of his campaign: to address distrust between African Americans and Latinos in Los Angeles.

Four years ago, Hahn defeated Villaraigosa in part by outpolling Villaraigosa 4 to 1 among black voters. And this year, there was again talk that African Americans would not support a Latino candidate. But Villaraigosa picked up endorsements from nearly every major black leader in this campaign and split the African American vote with Hahn on Tuesday, according to a Times exit poll.

Wednesday, Villaraigosa went to a job-training center to say that he would work to expand job opportunities for all Angelenos.

He also emphasized his ties to the African American community, standing with longtime Los Angeles Urban League President John Mack and two black councilmen.

“I chose this facility not just because it’s a state-of-the-art facility, but I wanted to reaffirm my commitment to the idea that a great city is a city where we are growing and prospering together,” Villaraigosa said in remarks warmly greeted by Mack and the mostly African American trainees at the facility.

Afterward, Mack said, “The foundation has been laid to really establish an effective African American/Latino coalition.”

Villaraigosa ended his public schedule Wednesday with a stop at an Eagle Rock coffee shop, where he was joined by longtime ally and former councilman Richard Alatorre.

Times staff writers Richard Fausset, Daniel Hernandez, Jeffrey L. Rabin and Joel Rubin contributed to this report.

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Voting results

*--* Los Angeles mayor Villaraigosa 260,721 58.66% Hahn 183,749 41.34% Precincts reporting 99.81%

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*--* 11th Council District Krisiloff 20,439 43.44% Rosendahl 26,613 56.56% Precincts reporting 99.81%

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*--* Charter Amendment A Shifts control of airport police Yes 142,096 35.41% No 259,215 64.59% Precincts reporting 99.81%

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*--* Charter Amendment B Changes city recall election rules Yes 203,066 51.89% No 188,281 48.11% Precincts reporting 99.81%

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Los Angeles Times