City of L.A. to Get Say on Mayoral, Council Seats

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City of L.A. to Get Say on Mayoral, Council Seats
Pitchman?: Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Believe it or not, another election looms for Angelenos on March 7. Besides the hot-button Measure S that would limit development, a slate of city of L.A. offices are up for a vote, including the mayor’s post and eight of 15 City Council seats.

What is unique about this election is that the upcoming term of office is for 5½ years, not the usual four. That’s because in a bid to boost recent dismal voter turnouts in city elections, Los Angeles is synching up its election cycle to gubernatorial and presidential years, when turnout is higher.

Mayor Eric Garcetti is facing off against 10 other candidates. While the incumbent is widely expected to win a majority vote and avoid a runoff, one of those 10 hopefuls has emerged as a challenger who could rack up a double-digit percentage vote: public affairs consultant Mitchell Schwartz. With more than $450,000 raised so far, Schwartz this week is expected to secure $300,000 in city matching funds, the only challenger to pass that threshold.

Schwartz’s war chest, however, is dwarfed by the $2.2 million that Garcetti has compiled.

Garcetti has already hit the airwaves with ads touting his economic record.

“With your support, we created jobs, we raised the minimum wage, and we cut our city business taxes and passed a tax credit bringing film jobs back to L.A.,” Garcetti says in one ad.

He then promises to build on those achievements, though he doesn’t offer specifics.

Schwartz, meanwhile, held a press conference last week to present the centerpiece of his economic plan: building more affordable-housing units.

“The lack of affordable housing is the No. 1 thing hurting the city and affecting job creation,” Schwartz said in an interview last week. “Companies can’t afford to come here because the cost of labor is so high so that workers can’t meet the cost of housing or rent.”

His plan calls for the creation of 350,000 affordable housing units over the next 10 years. Among the steps he would take: appointing a housing czar, reviewing developer impact fees, and enhancing incentive programs such as the existing state density bonus. Schwartz also reiterated his opposition to Measure S, which he said would slow the production of affordable housing.

Early in his administration, Garcetti put forward a goal of adding 100,000 affordable housing units; he has recently said the city is about halfway toward that goal.

Turning to the council, all eight odd-numbered districts are up for election this year. Incumbents are running in all but one of the districts and are widely expected to win, though one or two might fail to reach 50 percent, forcing a runoff in the May general election.

Chamber Investigation

The Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce’s political action committee is under investigation by the state Fair Political Practices Commission after the state agency received a complaint alleging that the chamber administration and the political action committee are commingling funds.

The allegations arose as part of a bitter dispute in that city over El Segundo developer CenterCal Properties’ plan for a $400 million development along the Redondo Beach waterfront that would include a market hall in addition to hotel, office, and retail space as well as a restored lagoon. That plan itself is the subject of Measure C on the March 7 ballot that would tighten development restrictions and likely scuttle CenterCal’s development.

The Redondo Beach chamber is listed on the No on C website as an opponent of Measure C; the chamber’s political action committee has contributed to candidates who either support CenterCal’s project and/or oppose Measure C.

Eugene Solomon, a Redondo Beach resident and insurance company owner, has been a vocal opponent of the CenterCal project. But he took things a step further, filing a complaint with the FPPC against the chamber. At the center of the allegation is the fact that the chamber receives $700,000 annually in city hotel bed tax funds to administer the city’s convention and visitors’ bureau, an arrangement that is common in many small cities.

According to a press release Solomon sent out last week, his complaint alleges that the “wall” between the chamber administration and the chamber’s political action committee is porous, effectively allowing some of that $700,000 to find its way into political contributions, which he claims violates state law banning use of government funds for political purposes.

The FPPC wrote Solomon back saying it will investigate the allegations.

Chamber Chief Executive Marna Smeltzer in an email referred to another part of that commission letter that states, “We have not made any determination about the validity of the allegation(s) made or about the culpability, if any, of the person(s) identified in the complaint.”

Smeltzer declined further comment.

Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 227.

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