Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Staff 70 Percent Larger Than That Of Former Mayor James Hahn
Even as the city ponders as many as 1,700 layoffs this year, staff in the office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has increased to 206 from 121 when James Hahn was in office, the Daily News reports. It's one of the largest mayoral staffs in the country.
The piece provides some good context, attempting to determine how the mayor's staff compares to other large cities.
The LADN reports Villaraigosa's office has 53.8 employees per million residents; in New York the ratio is 52.6, San Francisco 58.9 and Chicago 23.8.
Getting to an apples-to-apples comparison is difficult, however. Villaraigosa increased his staff by 37 when he took on the city's anti-gang effort. Mayors in New York City and Chicago have taken responsibility for schools.
The mayor's staff say this mayor has taken on ambitious projects across a wider range of areas and so requires more staff.
Other interesting data points from the LADN piece:
--The mayor has 16 lobbyists in Washington and Sacramento. What are we? Goldman Sachs?
--23 staffers are assigned to neighborhoods, including neighborhood councils and field work. (This will come as a bit of a surprise to people in neighborhoods, most of whom we've talked to regard the mayor as a disappointment and his regime as distant.)
--There are 10 people with "deputy mayor" in their title; 23 have "manager"; and, 46 have "director," making the office the land of fancy titles.
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