LA DAILY NEWS
Maybe what the city of Los Angeles needs is a blueprint for dealing with blueprints.
With City Controller Laura Chick releasing her detailed plan for dealing with gangs, she included everything but how to wrest authority from the City Council.
In suggesting most anti-gang programs be placed under the direct authority of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Chick has escalated the rivalry between the mayor and City Council over how to run Los Angeles.
The council has proven itself unwilling to cede much of its authority – witness its recent decision complicating an effort to let neighborhood councils open council files – and again is proving reluctant.
Councilman Tony Cardenas, who has chaired the ad hoc committee on gangs and youth violence for the past two years, fired the opening salvo, reminding Chick, Villaraigosa and anyone who would listen that it is the City Council that will approve any citywide gang program.
Councilwoman Jan Perry joined in, questioning whether placing anti-gang programs in the Mayor’s Office would reduce their visibility and transparency – and hurt efforts already under way to combat gangs.
“There are a lot of good programs out there that I want to make sure are able to continue to operate,” Perry said. “I’m not comfortable with (Chick’s) recommendation. I think it needs a lot more input from those doing the work.”
Perry insisted her concerns were not about maintaining the council’s power.
“It’s making sure there is accountability and delivery of service,” Perry said. “Of course, the mayor plays a role, but I’m not sure it should be in charge of everything.”
It is Cardenas’ committee that will review Chick’s report. City Council President Eric Garcetti said he agrees with the report’s recommendation for greater accountability – but also said he is supporting a detailed review of the report by the ad hoc committee and of any other council panel that wants to look at it.
Chick said she hopes preliminary steps to implement her recommendations take place within six months.
For Villaraigosa, the idea of being in charge of all the city’s anti-gang programs fits with his new approach to dealing with the City Council – consult members but go ahead and do what he wants.
Such was the case last week when the council’s Transportation Committee held up his plans to turn Olympic and Pico boulevards into one-way streets.
The mayor issued an executive order and will wait for the council to catch up.
It also seems Villaraigosa is re-energized now that he’s no longer aggressively campaigning for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid.
The mayor has returned to taking part in three, four and five events every day – often on widely varying topics – giving rise to jokes that he now has more events he can arrive to late.
To give Villaraigosa credit, he was on time last week to Chick’s news conference on an anti-gang strategy – and even found himself pressed into service in moving a box for Chick to stand on.
“That’s how I like to see the mayor,” Chick joked. “Working for me.”
The biggest local election news last week was the long-expected endorsement by Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke of Councilman Bernard Parks to succeed her on the Board of Supervisors.
State Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, who is challenging Parks in the June 3 primary, said he was not surprised by the endorsement in the nonpartisan race.
“The Burke family and Parks family have maintained a longtime friendship,” Ridley-Thomas said. “It is not unusual or unexpected that a bond between friends would be a significant factor influencing Supervisor Burke’s political decision.
“Her endorsement is not a surprise. She and I met recently. She said she and Bernard are old friends and her endorsement was based on their mutual friendship.”
Ridley-Thomas boasts a number of union endorsements, but the biggest one now out there is U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles.
Waters’ political operation carries a lot of weight in the district, but she has not been close in previous years to Ridley-Thomas.
