A series of unexpected political events has created two openings on the L.A. City Council, and several vacancies in other chambers could materialize before the year is out.
“With all the attention on the mayor’s race, none of us focused on this prospect of musical chairs in an off-year,” said Raphael Sonenshein, professor of political science at California State University Fullerton.
L.A. City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa’s victory in the mayor’s race set off a scramble on the Eastside for his 14th council district seat. School board president Jose Huizar and former Councilman Nick Pacheco are running for that seat. (State Sen. Gil Cedillo briefly considered running, but decided against it.) If Huizar wins, his school board seat will be up for grabs.
Then came the death of Los Angeles County Federation of Labor chief Miguel Contreras, which created an opening that will likely be filled by L.A.
City Councilman Martin Ludlow. That opens up Ludlow’s council seat; as of last week, former Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson was considered to be the frontrunner for that post he would have to move into the district, though.
Wesson had been looking to run for the seat now held by term-limited state Sen. Kevin Murray. With Wesson presumably out of the picture, Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas is now the frontrunner for that seat.
There’s also the unexpected illness of newly elected Assemblyman Mike Gordon, D-El Segundo, who has been absent from the Legislature since February. Gordon has been suffering from a brain tumor, and the Los Angeles Times has reported that it’s uncertain whether he will return to Sacramento. If he is forced to give up his seat, that sets off another special election, presumably for November.
Torrance City Councilman Paul Nowatka, a Republican, has already filed papers to challenge Gordon next year. (The other Republican challenger is former Redondo Beach Mayor Greg Hill, whom Gordon vanquished last fall.) Another Torrance City Councilman, Ted Lieu, is being readied as the Democrat to replace Gordon should a special election be called. If either of those councilmembers were to win, that opens up a seat on the Torrance City Council.
Money Back
For three companies doing business in Los Angeles, Christmas came last week when the City Council approved business tax refunds of over $100,000 apiece.
The three companies are Tenet Healthsystem QA (an L.A.-based subsidiary of Tenet Healthcare Corp.), Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Graphic Orb Inc. of North Hollywood. In all three cases, the companies themselves discovered their errors and took the initiative to file refund claims with the city.
Graphic Orb will get a refund of $169,000, Tenet $145,000, and Transamerica $106,500.
Two of the companies Tenet and Transamerica overstated the revenue base on which the gross receipts tax is calculated. Graphic Orb’s mistake was attributed to an “accounting error” by the company.
City Finance Director Antoinette Christovale said companies often miscalculate how much of their gross receipts come from business transactions within city boundaries.
“If companies have questions about how to apportion their receipts, they can call us and we can and do help them with that,” she said.
Mel Kohn, a Sherman Oaks accountant who co-chaired the blue-ribbon Business Tax Advisory Committee that pushed for business tax reform, said the mistakes speak more to the problems with the city’s business tax code than to the accounting abilities of the companies themselves.
“Most of the time, the mistakes that result are minor,” he said. “These are mind-boggling in their size.”
Election Ballot
The election that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called for on Nov. 8 will contain more for L.A.-area voters than just the eight statewide initiatives.
Already scheduled are 80 school district elections, 20 municipal elections and 20 special district races.
And thanks to the aforementioned openings, two L.A. City Council seats will likely be on the ballot, as well as the possibility of several other local posts.
“You’re going to see a lot more slate mailers going out to voters,” said Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in West L.A.
Most of these mailers will be from Democrats and their union allies and from Republicans and their business allies.
But candidates seeking local office may very well pay to add their names to these mailers as a way to get their name out. That, in turn, will drive up campaign costs for these candidates, Stern said.
*Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached by phone at (323) 549-5225, ext. 227, or by e-mail at
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