Few political allies have been more important to the campaign of Los Angeles city attorney candidate Jack Weiss than Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the chairman of his campaign and a leading fundraiser.
But in an interview with Times reporters and editors Tuesday afternoon, Villaraigosa said he could not guarantee that the Westside councilman would win in the runoff May 19.
Asked whether Weiss would make it through his race with rival Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich, the mayor looked down at the table and paused for a moment.
“You know, I’ll tell you something,” Villaraigosa said with a brief sigh, “Weiss is a man of integrity, intelligence; he is a former U.S. attorney who’s best equipped to be the city attorney of this town, period. His views on public policy are consonant with this town and who we are. But I can’t guarantee that."
Villaraigosa noted that the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which recently hired Don Novey, the former head of the powerful state prison guards union as its political consultant, is now putting considerable muscle behind Trutanich.
The union recently spent $250,000 on radio spots, $17,636 on a mailer, and $2,645 on a billboard highlighting Trutanich’s endorsements by Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley and Sheriff Lee Baca and calling him “law enforcement's choice for city attorney.”
“These guys are going to spend a lot of money. Don Novey is leading a charge,” Villaraigosa said. “I can’t guarantee it; I can’t tell you I know for sure what’s going to happen. But I can tell you – he’s a good man. He’s a good man, and I think people need to take a second look.”
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is putting increasing pressure on top education officials and union leaders to eliminate all teacher layoffs
His presence Monday at Markham Middle School in Watts underscored the campus' looming turnover: Markham could lose more than a third of its teachers, the principal and other administrators because they lack seniority to protect them from pending budget cuts.
"We don't want a budget that's predicated on losing thousands of jobs -- period," the mayor said. "Our goal is to bring it down to zero. There is a way out."
Using his most aggressive rhetoric to date, Villaraigosa pledged to teachers: "I will fight for you."
As he negotiates with Los Angeles city employee unions on concessions to address next year’s $530-million budget deficit, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa plans to hold a town hall meeting Thursday evening in Tarzana.
The mayor will present his plan to Valley business leaders at 5 p.m. at the Providence Tarzana Medical Center Auditorium, 18321 Clark St. Residents who wish to attend must RSVP by calling Debi Schultze at 818-981-4491 or emailing DebiSchultze@UnitedChambers.org.
On Monday, Villaraigosa submitted his proposed budget to the City Council for approval. To cut salary costs, the mayor has included an array of options for employees to consider, including furloughs or taking off one hour each week over the next year.
-- Maeve Reston
Caption: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa shakes hands after his State of the City address at the Balqon Corp. electric truck factory in Harbor City last week. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times
Another member of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s senior staff is heading to Washington.
President Obama on Friday announced that he has nominated Mercedes Márquez, general manager of the city’s Housing Department, to become assistant secretary for community planning and development at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, the post would be a reunion of sorts for Márquez. During the Clinton administration, she served as the senior counsel to the HUD secretary for civil rights and fair housing.
"Mercedes is energetic, passionate and has a deep understanding of the challenges facing big cities," Villaraigosa said in a statement released by his office. "She will be a true partner for Los Angeles at the federal level. I look forward to working hand in hand with her to build more affordable housing, invest in communities, revitalize our urban core, and build the foundation for more housing options for our hard-working families."
To planning nerds, a court ruling that struck down a new housing density law in Los Angeles Tuesday was a small earthquake, throwing into question the legality of an unknown number of real estate projects approved by the City Council over the last year.
But political types had another urgent question about the decision: Is it the revenge of Jane Usher?
You have to wonder how bad a budget year it’s going to be at Los Angeles City Hall when the song chosen to introduce Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s State of the City speech Tuesday was titled “Uptight (Everything’s Alright).”
As the mayor made his way to the stage, at least a couple of people in the audience recognized the Stevie Wonder hit and questioned if the mayor's handlers had thought through the various implications. Should listeners embrace the "uptight" part of the speech, focusing on the gloomy economy? Or that the mayor's green-jobs proposal will make "everything all right?" (Based on the contents of the speech, probably the latter.)
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday laid out a second-term agenda steeped heavily on creating politically appealing, environmentally friendly jobs to rescue L.A. from its economic malaise, but he warned of unavoidable pain ahead as the city digs out of a half-billion-dollar budget deficit.
Delivering his fourth State of the City speech since taking office, Villaraigosa’s carefully-crafted remarks struck the tone of a Democratic candidate for governor, with his scorching critiques of Sacramento lawmakers and Washington conservatives and by offering himself as the anthesis to the “politics of no."
Villaraigosa also made far-reaching promises to provide care for families decimated by job loss and foreclosures, turn over L.A.’s failed schools to charter operators and transform the city into an incubator of the “green-tech’’ industry. Portions of the ambitious agenda hinge on the city securing hundreds of millions of dollars from President Obama’s stimulus package, which is by no means assured for some programs.
These are no ordinary times in the City of Los Angeles, or for that matter, any place where people depend on the global economy.
Here in L.A., the recession is taking a terrible toll. 230,000 Angelenos now standing on unemployment lines. The jobless rate simmering at 12% and rising. The mortgage crisis has now forced 21,000 of our families to box up their belongings and vacate their homes, many experiencing for the first time in their lives the humiliating pain -- the frustration -- that comes in having to put your hand out and rely on the help of strangers to survive.
We have thousands of business owners struggling to make payroll. Trade flows and ship traffic are idling at the port. And the recession has done lasting damage to one of our most vital civic institutions: our great newspapers.
Needless to say, the recession has hit government particularly hard.
The need for our services is up. Revenue to pay for them is down. Here in L.A., we face a $530-million deficit this year alone.
The situation at the state level — where the system seems hardwired for failure — is even more extreme. That’s why it is absolutely critical that we lock arms and approve the bipartisan budget stabilization package on May 19 to prevent us from destroying the very services that Californians depend on.
When challenges seem daunting, it’s always helpful to recall the old Japanese proverb: “Adversity is the foundation of virtue.”
If this global economic crisis was brought on by the recklessness and greed of the few, pulling ourselves out of the ditch is going to require the shared sacrifice of the many. It’s going to take a bold reassertion of our belief in community as a value – here in L.A. and across America.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pulled in support today from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, educators and business leaders for a package of initiatives they say would address California’s economic hardships and establish long-term solutions to prevent future budget meltdowns.
“This is the only way out of the morass of budget battle over the last decade,” Villaraigosa said. “This is the only way forward. If we don’t pass these initiatives, California will go into bankruptcy. We have a responsibility. This is the right thing, at the right time for this state.”
Baca, a Republican, said passage of the measures, Propositions 1A through 1F, would guarantee a stable funding source for public safety, and help “ensure that Californians are always adequately protected.”
The measures would increase the size of the state’s rainy day fund, limit future state spending, borrow $5 billion against the lottery; reduce funding for early childhood education and mental health services; and freeze state elected officials' salaries when the budget is late. The governor, a Republican, praised the bipartisan support for the measures as he stood with the Democratic L.A. mayor. A special election is scheduled for May 19.
“In order to win this initiative, one of the most important things is that … everyone buys in,” said Schwarzenegger at the news conference, which was held at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.
When Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gives his “state of the city’’ speech April 12, he’ll know he’ll have an automatic cheering section.
Villaraiogosa’s mayoral campaign sent out invitations to supporters and campaign volunteers saying 100 seats have been reserved for them.
“Your hard work and dedication has made it possible for the mayor to continue the work of bringing people together to take on Los Angeles' toughest challenges,’’ the e-mailed invite says.
With Los Angeles facing close to a $1-billion budget shortfall next year, the city agency overseeing Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday sent out a memo to employees warning of possible “short-term furloughs.’’
For the last few months, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has said repeatedly that all cost-cutting measures would be considered to address the shortfall, including layoffs and an early retirement program, and that negotiations with the city’s labor unions are ongoing. The nitty-gritty details will be laid out in Villaraigosa’s proposed 2009-10 budget, which he is scheduled to submit to the City Council on April 20.
Two Florida businessmen who planned to seek lucrative concession contracts from Los Angeles International Airport for their gift shop business pleaded guilty today to laundering campaign contributions to Antonio Villaraigosa’s 2005 mayoral campaign and agreed to pay more than $200,000 in fines and penalties.
Sean Anderson and Richard Manhire, who own the Miami-based Travel Traders LLC, each pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of improperly identifying a campaign contributor, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
In return for their pleas, prosecutors dismissed felony conspiracy charges against them.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa plans this morning to appoint two new members to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority: City Councilman Jose Huizar and Rita Robinson, general manager of the city’s Transportation Department.
The new appointments come hours before the MTA board will consider the mayor’s proposal to give a second chance to an Italian rail company known as AnsaldoBreda Inc., which is building 50 light-rail cars for the agency under its current contract and asking the MTA to exercise contract options for an additional 100 cars -- a deal worth more than $300 million.
Top MTA executives, who say AnsaldoBreda is three years behind on its contract and that its cars are heavy, had planned to let the company’s contract options expire March 31 and open bidding for the manufacturing of 100 cars.
But the mayor intervened on behalf of AnsaldoBreda after the company offered to build a rail car manufacturing plant in downtown Los Angeles with union jobs.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today announced a new initiative aimed at helping at least 10,000 low-income households open bank accounts at mainstream financial institutions every year.
Villaraigosa said at a news conference this morning that nearly 300,000 households in Los Angeles do not have checking or savings accounts, and a single households spends up to $1,000 a year in check cashing fees and other transactions that are normally free at a bank. The new program is called Bank on Los Angeles.
"Bank on L.A. will offer all Angelenos the tools [to] open bank accounts, save for the future, climb another rung on the economic ladder and punch their ticket to economic growth for years to come," Villaraigosa said.
Banks that have signed up with the program, including Bank of America, Citibank and Kinecta Federal Credit Union, have agreed to waive regular checking account fees or offer low-cost accounts for participants. The program will include a bilingual marketing and education campaign touting the benefits of opening checking accounts and describing how the banking system works.
Officials said some people do not have bank accounts because they lack a Social Security number. To resolve that issue, participating banks will accept other forms of recognized identification, including the matricula consular, an identification card issued by the Mexican government.
With scant turnout across the city, today's election drew a number of die-hard voters who said they were intent on doing their civic duty no matter how sleepy the races in their districts have been.
Eleanor Burian-Mohr, 57, a screenwriter who was one of just a handful of voters at the Elysian Heights Elementary school polling place around lunch time, said it was “possibly one of the dullest elections” she could recall. David Wittow, a 37-year-old flight attendant who voted at Saint Teresa School in Silver Lake, said the election had been “very boring,” but residents were taking their democracy for granted.
City leaders unveiled Fire Station 13, Los Angeles' newest, this morning in Pico-Union.
The $13-million station, at 2401 Pico Blvd., will serve a 2.1-square-mile area including Pico-Union, Koreatown and Harvard Heights. City officials estimate the area will be home to about 340,000 people by 2010.
Fire Station 13, modernized through Proposition F funds, replaces the old Fire Station 13 at 1206 S. Vermont Blvd., which that was built in 1949.
Councilman Ed Reyes, City Fire Chief Douglas Barry and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa were at the ceremony.
If you read Sunday's newspaper, you might know that two of the candidates for Los Angeles controller are fighting over who will be more independent from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. And that argument has led to one of the campaign's weirdest controversies: Birthday-gate, and what it means when a candidate shows up at a party for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
It all started when engineer Nick Patsaouras, one of three candidates seeking to replace City Controller Laura Chick, accused opponent Wendy Greuel of being in the mayor's "inner circle." Greuel’s closeness to the mayor, Patsaouras said, would make it hard for her to question the mayor’s management or audit programs conducted by his office.
Greuel, a city councilwoman from the San Fernando Valley, shot back by saying Patsaouras, a onetime mayoral appointee who raised money for Villaraigosa’s 2005 campaign, is the one who resides in the inner circle. To hammer her point home, she noted that Patsaouras went to Villaraigosa's Jan. 23 birthday party at the home of Keith Brackpool, a longtime mayoral confidant. Greuel said she was not invited to the soiree.
Residents in Windsor Square are fuming about a proposal to build an 8-foot wall around the Getty House, the mayor's residence.
According to the Larchmont Chronicle, the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council recently voted against the proposal, saying it would be out of character with the community and, well, a bit ugly.
The Chronicle reports that the idea for the wall was first broached in October, and it appears security for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa might be the reason behind it.
Opponents of the wall argue that the English Tudor-style home was designed to be open to the street. According to the Getty House Foundation website, the house has a colorful history that includes lots of Hollywood names: "It is during this time that local legend has it that dashing movie star John Barrymore and wife Dolores Costello lived in the house. In truth, Delores Costello lived there alone with her children for four years after her separation from Barrymore."
February is African American Heritage Month, but events kick off today at Los Angeles City Hall with a red carpet award ceremony. Actress Alfre Woodard, singer Natalie Cole and the Rev. James Lawson will be honored at 10 a.m. inside Council Chambers by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for representing the spirit, dream and hope of Los Angeles.
Festivities will continue with musical performances and speakers on the South Lawn, where Villaraigosa will present the awards again and unveil a sculpture of President Barack Obama, designed by Artis Lane.
Both ceremonies are open to the public. Here's a list of upcoming African American Heritage Month events.
-- Corina Knoll
Photo: Fourth-grader Denisha Pitchford, center, sings as part of an African American Heritage Month program at City Hall in 2005. Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles mayoral candidate Walter Moore has officially qualified for city matching funds and collected a $43,000 check for his campaign.
Moore is one of the nine candidates challenging Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in the city’s March 3 primary election, and is the only challenger to raise enough in campaign contributions to qualify for city matching funds.
Candidates must raise at least $150,000 in contributions of $500 or less from individuals to qualify. Moore had raised close to $203,000 as of Jan. 17, but had spent all of it, city Ethics Commission records show.
So the dough will come in handy.
"It’s great ... I can really do a lot with $43,000," Moore said, adding he expects to qualify for even more in the weeks ahead.
Alarmed by a huge increase in swindlers trying to take advantage of families whose homes are in foreclosure, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and a host of bankers, legal aid lawyers and law enforcement officials today called on the public to beware of people peddling loan modification scams.
"These foreclosure scams take your money, ruin your credit and ... prevent] you from getting real help,” said Brian Finch, a spokesman for JP Morgan Chase & Co.
The scams typically work like this: Swindlers target homeowners who are behind on their payments, promising to help them renegotiate their mortgages and avoid foreclosure in exchange for a fee. Then, typically, the swindlers take the money and disappear leaving the homeowners in worse straits than when they begun.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa threw his support behind Israel this afternoon, backing the country in its latest strikes against Hamas and its invasion of the Gaza Strip.
The announcement, made during a news conference, pleased Jewish leaders in Los Angeles but sparked anger among local Muslim groups.
"I've been to Sderot and seen the wreckage caused by a constant barrage of rocket attacks," Villaraigosa said of the city in southern Israel. "I've met parents afraid to let their kids play in the streets and students unable to go to school each day. I've walked along empty roads, visited vacant buildings and witnessed the sheer destruction of a town decimated by eight years of missile strikes."
All this talk by President-elect Barack Obama about huge investment in public works projects has America's big-city mayors -- including ours -- licking their chops. Antonio Villaraigosa joined New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others in Washington to beg not for a bailout but an "investment," according to City News Service. Our mayor has a lot of places he could spend the money, including the extension of the subway into the Westside. Details:
Villaraigosa met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Reps. Charles Rangel of New York, James Oberstar of Minnesota and David Obey from Wisconsin. At a news conference in the Capitol Building, Villaraigosa renewed his call an investment in infrastructure to create new jobs in Los Angeles. "We are not asking for a bailout. We are providing the road map to recovery. We are not asking for a handout," Villaraigosa said. "Los Angeles and America’s cities are rising to the challenge once again," he said. "The federal government can get the biggest bang for its buck by meeting us halfway. And together with the leadership of our new president and this Congress, the America people will rise up and get our nation moving again.
Despite increased speculation that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa may be heading to Washington, he said Monday that he would not be joining President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet.
Villaraigosa said he had a "conversation" with Obama in mid-November about joining the new Democratic administration, but told the incoming president that he would stay in Los Angeles to focus on his reelection campaign and ongoing efforts to address the city's financial troubles and other pressing issues.
"I'm honored and flattered to have been considered for an appointment in the Obama administration," Villaraigosa told The Times on Monday. "I made it clear I love what I do. And I feel that at this moment in my life, this is the job in which I can best serve my city and country."
Bolting to the Obama administration, while potentially beneficial to Villaraigosa's long-term political ambitions, would have created political mayhem in Los Angeles.
Villaraigosa faces no strong opposition in the city's March primary election, and the deadline for mayoral candidates to file has already passed. No other candidates would be allowed to run for mayor unless they were write-ins, according to city election officials.
Just days after developer Rick Caruso announced he won't challenge Antonio Villaraigosa for mayor of Los Angeles in next year's election, word comes that Caruso will play a role in local government.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Caruso, 52, to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission today.
The governor also named actor-producer Tab Hunter, 77, to the Santa Barbara Fair and Expo Board of Directors.
The Montecito resident starred in more than 50 films and his recording career included the song “Young Love.”
Despite increased speculation that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa may be heading to Washington, he said Monday that he would not be joining President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet.
Just days after developer Rick Caruso 
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