The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to spend up to $52 million in redevelopment funds on public improvements around a downtown museum, hours before Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was set to meet with Gov. Jerry Brown to discuss ways of shielding redevelopment agencies from elimination.

On a 12-0 vote, the council endorsed a decision, made last week by Villaraigosa's appointees on the redevelopment board, to earmark the money for new sidewalks, a public plaza and a 370-space parking garage next to the museum, which is planned by billionaire Eli Broad.

That museum, which would go up on Grand Avenue just south of Walt Disney Hall, has a scheduled opening of 2013 and could break ground within weeks.

Critics complain that redevelopment agencies siphon much-needed property tax revenue away from other services, such as schools, public safety and county hospitals. Brown has proposed the elimination of redevelopment agencies as part of his effort to close a $25.4 billion budget hole.

A staffer on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's anti-gang team has been placed on administrative leave after she was arrested in connection with a fight at a downtown nightclub.

Villaraigosa Chief of Staff Jeff Carr, who ran the mayor's anti-gang programs until he was promoted in 2009, said Blanca Martinez-Navarro has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

"Other than that, I have no comment," Carr said in an e-mail Sunday.

Martinez-Navarro, 28, the Rampart program manager for the mayor's gang reduction and youth development office, was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor battery about 1:40 a.m. after police were called to the Conga Room at 800 W. Olympic Blvd. within the L.A. Live Complex, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the case.

Martinez-Navarro is being held at the Central Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail. Her husband, Oscar Navarro, 29, was also booked on the same misdemeanor battery charge.

[Updated, 5 p.m.: Martinez-Navarro was released Sunday afternoon on $20,000 bail.]

The couple were attending a large party at the Conga Room when they allegedly became embroiled in a domestic dispute. When a security guard responded, Martinez-Navarro's husband allegedly began fighting with him, according to law enforcement sources who asked not to be identified because of the ongoing criminal investigation.

LAPD officers were then called to the scene. When police confronted Navarro, he struggled with officers, and his wife allegedly jumped onto one's back, the sources said. 

RELATED:

Official in Mayor Villaraigosa's gang-reduction office arrested after fight at downtown nightclub

-- Andrew Blankstein and David Zahniser

A staffer with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's gang-reduction office was arrested early Sunday after authorities said she assaulted a police officer who had responded to a report of a fight at a downtown club.

Blanca Martinez-Navarro, the Rampart program manager for the mayor's gang reduction and youth development office, was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor battery around 1:40 a.m. after police were called to the Conga Room at 800 West Olympic Boulevard within the downtown L.A. Live Complex, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the case.

Martinez-Navarro is being held at the Central Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail. [Update, 11 a.m.: Martinez-Navarro's husband, Oscar Navarro, was also booked on the same misdemeanor battery charge.]

The couple were attending a large party at the Conga Room when they allegedly became embroiled in some kind of domestic dispute. When a security guard responded to the club, Martinez-Navarro's husband allegedly began fighting with him, according to law enforcement sources who asked not to be identified because of the ongoing criminal investigation.

LAPD officers were then called to the scene. [Updated, 11 a.m.: When officers confronted Navarro, he struggled with police, and his wife allegedly jumped onto one officer's back, the sources said. ]

RELATED:

Villaraigosa anti-gang official on leave after dance-club fight

-- Andrew Blankstein

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s newest pick to run the Department of Water and Power promised on Tuesday to restore leadership stability at the agency, saying he wanted to bring an end to the utility’s revolving door of top executives.

The council voted 11 to 0 to make Ron Nichols, a Seattle-based utility consultant, the DWP’s general manager -- its sixth since 2007. Moments before that vote, Nichols said the rapid turnover “hasn’t made life easy” for the DWP in recent years.

“I’m very mindful of that,” he said. “It’s my desire to be here a long time.”

Nichols arrives as the DWP presses ahead with Villaraigosa’s strategy for securing more renewable sources of energy, such as wind, geothermal and solar power. Utility managers warned last month that the DWP may need electricity rate increases of 5% to 8% in each of the next five years to cover its long-range environmental goals and its ongoing expenses.

Although the confirmation hearing lasted roughly an hour, Nichols provided no specifics on the types of rate hikes that customers might see in the next few years. Instead, he told the council that there are no “easy answers” for the DWP as it deals with financial pressures on its water and electrical operations.

The race for campaign money among candidates for the Los Angeles Board of Education would suggest a sleepy, low-stakes election, but appearances are deceiving: An electoral shootout is still expected between the city’s teachers union and L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in the March 8 election.

The latest filings, which were due last week, cover the last quarter of 2010. Four of seven school-board seats are up for grabs in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

As of year-end, the most money has accumulated in District 5, where one-term incumbent Yolie Flores is not running for reelection. Luis Sanchez raised about $80,000 trying to establish himself as the frontrunner. Most observers expect he’ll claim the endorsement of Villaraigosa and the campaign funds that come with that. The mayor is vying to maintain a friendly majority on the seven-member school board. Sanchez is currently chief of staff to school board President Monica Garcia, the mayor’s closest ally on the board.

Bennett Kayser, a teacher, raised $1,900, more than half that amount a loan from himself. John Fernandez, a retired teacher, recorded no fundraising — not one dollar. But that picture will alter because he’s the endorsed candidate of United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers union.

District 5 spans Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Eagle Rock and the southeastern portions of the L.A. Unified School District, including the cities of Huntington Park, Bell and South Gate.

A rules change in this election cycle will affect how money is donated and controlled. For the first time, donors to candidates will be limited to $1,000 contributions, said David Tristan, deputy director of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission.

The big money in this race is likely to come from independent expenditures — again with the teachers union and its allies pitted against the mayor and his allies. Before it's over, hotly contested campaigns could easily exceed a million dollars in spending.

To wit, in District 7, candidate Jesus Escandon reported raising $59 in the last quarter, but the union has endorsed Escandon and is expected to make a run at unseating one-term incumbent Richard Vladovic, a mayoral ally. Vladovic raised $50,676 in the last quarter of 2010.

A third candidate, Roye Love, has loaned himself $1,000 toward his campaign.

The union also is backing District 1 two-term incumbent Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, who raised $3,200 in the last quarter and reported having just $170 cash on hand. Challenger Eric Lee raised $7,943.

District 1 covers substantial portions of south and southwest Los Angeles.

District 3 stretches roughly across the western half of the San Fernando Valley. There, one-term incumbent Tamar Galatzan reported raising $25,246. Challenger Louis Pugliese had no fundraising to report.

ALSO:

Decoding the March 8 L.A. city ballot

L.A. City Council candidates discuss unfair campaign accusations

Parks reelection challenger boasts of endorsements from two key L.A. unions

-- Howard Blume

The Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to cut more than $18 million from this year's budget but postponed a decision on the two most controversial proposals -– new furloughs and a major reduction in graffiti removal services.

The council refused to back a $1.8-million cut to the Department of Recreation and Parks, which was expected to lead to more unpaid days off for its employees. But the council agreed to cut $1 million from the budgets for its own offices and that of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Friday's vote also included a $1-million reduction to the office of City Atty. Carmen Trutanich.

City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana, the city's top budget official, said he would come back with a report explaining what services would be reduced if the city moved ahead with his latest budget-cutting plan -– forcing certain civilian workers to take another 10 unpaid days off before June 30. Some are already required to take 26 days this year.

Villaraigosa and the council members oppose that plan.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa celebrated an environmental milestone on Thursday, confirming what had been predicted for much of last year: the Department of Water and Power managed to secure 20% of its power from renewable sources, including wind and solar power, in 2010.

Villaraigosa promised to reach that goal during the 2005 election campaign. Sustaining it may be another matter, according to a draft report issued two months ago by the DWP, the nation's largest municipally owned utility.

In that report, DWP officials warned that its renewable-energy portfolio would steadily slip backward over the next five years, to 13% in 2015, unless the utility received a major infusion of cash. In that same report, DWP officials recommended that the utility scale back the ambitious renewable-energy promise that Villaraigosa made in his 2009 inaugural -- getting 40% of the DWP's power from renewable sources by 2020.

The mayor said Thursday that he was now pushing for a 33% renewable goal by 2020. DWP officials warned last month that even that more conservative goal -- when combined with other long-term expenses at the DWP -- could result in electricity-rate hikes of 5% to 8% in each of the next five years.

A challenger to Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard C. Parks boasted Wednesday that she has secured the backing of two major public employee unions in the March 8 election, including one that represents workers at the Department of Water and Power.

Forescee Hogan-Rowles, a former appointee of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to the DWP board, said she picked up the endorsement of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, which serves more than 8,600 DWP workers. That union was upset at Parks last year for attempting to give the council more control over pension benefits for utility employees.

Hogan-Rowles also said she had received the endorsement of the Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents thousands of civilian employees at City Hall. That group has voiced disappointment with Parks, who heads the council’s budget committee and has repeatedly pushed for layoffs as a way of addressing a major financial crisis.

The city faces a shortfall of nearly $63 million this year and is expected to confront a $350-million gap in the fiscal year that starts July 1. So far, 2,400 workers have taken early retirement, while more than 360 have been laid off.

The only school board member who did not vote to hire John Deasy as L.A.'s new schools chief said he did so over procedural concerns, not because he lacks confidence in the incoming superintendent.

Steve Zimmer said he thought Deasy, who was approved Tuesday by a 6-0 vote with Zimmer's abstention, was well qualified and should do a good job. But Zimmer said he thought the board should have conducted a more thorough search.

“I was not given the chance to interview other applicants,” said Zimmer, who added that he would not have approved of anyone under similar circumstances.

“I would have abstained even if it was Gandhi,” Zimmer said.

After a news conference at the district's main office building downtown announcing Deasy’s hiring, Zimmer gave Deasy a big hug, patting his back twice.

Board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, who often votes with Zimmer, said she had similar concerns about the process. Departing Supt. Ramon C. Cortines had said for months he intended to retire in the spring. And it appeared Deasy was the heir-apparent.

Deasy, who formerly led districts in Santa Monica-Malibu, Maryland and Rhode Island, has been a deputy superintendent in Los Angeles since August.

LaMotte also said she was concerned that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa may have played too large a role in the hiring process but decided to vote for Deasy in an “effort to move forward,” she said.

Villaraigosa is expected to hold a rally with city business and nonprofit leaders Wednesday morning as a show of support for Deasy.

During Tuesday's news conference, every speaker praised Cortines, 78, for his leadership. He did not attend the event, however, and appeared shortly after it was over.  Cortines said he watched the press conference from his office and that he believed Deasy was a good choice.  

Deasy began his remarks by delivering a short message in Spanish, saying he wanted to acknowledge the diversity of the community. He acknowledged not speaking the language very well. Some board members behind him squirmed and grinned sheepishly; at one point, a nervously smiling board member Yolie Flores and Villaraigosa put their arms around each other, seemingly for support.

But when Deasy finished his brief Spanish remarks, all of the board members applauded.

“Bravo,” Villaraigosa said.

ALSO:

Sheriff's deputy shot in face, may lose eye

Newport Beach won't name park after Ronald Reagan, but agrees to statue

Brother of man allegedly killed by CHP officer gratified at arrest in 2-year-old case    

--Jason Song

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sent a letter Monday urging the City Council to move ahead with his plan to get budget revenue by leasing nine parking garages to a private company, saying he will lay off more employees if the deal is abandoned.

Villaraigosa’s letter was issued two days before the council heads behind closed doors to discuss the parking proposal, which would give a private company the opportunity to run the garages for up to 50 years.

Business groups in Hollywood, Westwood and downtown have criticized the plan, fearing that a private company would hike rates and drive away customers. Villaraigosa said in his letter the city can no longer afford to manage parking garages and insisted that “the era of free parking in Los Angeles is over.”

“We must accept this economic reality, and move on to the business of providing the services our residents require,” he wrote.