Last week’s funeral for L.A. City Council President John Ferraro provided some dramatic evidence of how much term limits have already changed the face of L.A. politics.
All one had to do was listen to the most common refrains among funeral attendees: “It’s not likely we’ll ever again see this kind of turnout for an L.A. elected official.” And “We’ll never see the like of John Ferraro in Los Angeles again, thanks to term limits.”
Ferraro who was first appointed to the City Council in 1966, was the longest-serving council member in L.A. city history. What’s more, he spent 18 of those 35 years as council president. As a point of reference, Ferraro had already served seven years before one councilman, Alex Padilla, was even born.
But now, with term limits in effect since the mid-1990s, no one else will ever serve as long. Joel Wachs, who has served 31 years, will be termed out in 2003, as will Hal Bernson, who was first elected to the Council in 1979. Current Council President Ruth Galanter and Nate Holden, both elected in 1987, are also termed out in 2003.
Every other current council member was first elected in the 1990s. In fact, one of those council members, Nick Pacheco, has only been on the Council two years, yet is already campaigning for Ferraro’s post as council president.
As a testament to Ferraro’s longevity on the council, a number of colleagues who served with him in the 1970s and 1980s including Joy Picus, Marvin Braude, and Zev Yaroslavsky attended the funeral, as did former pols like state Sen. David Roberti.
“This is the last time you’re going to see such a gathering of L.A.’s political leaders,” said one attendee, public affairs and political consultant Emma Schafer.
But term limits manifested itself in another way, too: the sometimes-not-so-subtle campaigning that went on before and after the service. With a record number of open seats up for grabs, thanks to term limits, this was an opportunity not to be missed.
Of course mayoral candidates James Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa attended. Hahn showed up about 45 minutes before the service and walked down the center aisle of the crowded church shaking hands. Villaraigosa came just a few minutes later, but late enough to be shunted quietly down the side of the church, unable to shake many hands. He saved his politicking until after the service.
Other candidates showed up, too, including the four candidates eliminated from the mayor’s race (Congressman Xavier Becerra, state Controller Kathleen Connell, businessman Steve Soboroff and Councilman Wachs) and both candidates for City Attorney, Councilman Mike Feuer and deputy mayor Rocky Delgadillo. After the service, they could all be seen doing the “meet-and-greet” rounds in the middle of the closed-off streets outside the church.
Coliseum Politics
Another form of football has returned to the L.A. Memorial Coliseum call it political football.
State Assemblyman Rod Wright, D-Los Angeles, has reintroduced a bill AB 621 to set up an Exposition Park Authority, which essentially would put all of the Exposition Park facilities, including the Coliseum, under the complete control of the state, which owns the land.
The duties of the nine-member Coliseum Commission would be folded into the new authority. The Coliseum Commission is composed of three county supervisors, three city of L.A. appointees and three state appointees.
Wright, who has long expressed his displeasure with the Coliseum Commission, introduced a virtually identical bill last year. That bill went nowhere until the final weeks of the session. Then it got caught up in one of the more bizarre episodes of political brinksmanship: the dispute over the rebuilding of County-USC Medical Center.
The County Board of Supervisors had voted to build a 600-bed hospital. But this move angered Latino politicians who favored a bigger hospital to serve the burgeoning population of immigrants and working poor. Legislative leaders Sen. Richard Polanco and Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, along with supervisorial holdout Gloria Molina, pushed for a 750-bed hospital. As negotiations dragged on, legislative leaders seized on the Wright bill as a way to exert political leverage on county leaders. These legislators figured that the threat of losing any say in the management of the Coliseum would be enough to force concessions out of county supervisors.
But in the closing hours of the session, a compromise was reached on the County-USC issue and the Wright bill was quickly dropped.
With that controversy resolved, one might expect that the Wright bill would simply go away. But Wright apparently remains dissatisfied with the complex governing structure of Exposition Park.
Wright was tied up last week in committee hearings on the Southern California Edison rescue package (he chairs the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee) and could not be reached for comment. But he has repeatedly said he wants to have only one decision-making body in charge of Exposition Park that would serve as a single focal point for negotiations with prospective football franchise owners. Currently, the Coliseum Commission has authority over only the actual stadium and a small portion of the parking spaces; much of the rest is under the authority of the California Science Center.
But Coliseum Commission members and staff are opposed to Wright’s bill; they point to a legislative analysis prepared last year that said the bill is poorly crafted and unnecessary. Rather, they believe the bill is simply a power grab by the state, if not for complete control of Exposition Park itself, then as a way to continue to exert leverage over county affairs. The speculation is that there might be some conflict between state and county officials over labor union issues.
Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached at (323) 549-5225 ext. 227 or at [email protected]
