Antonio '11 Percent' Villaraigosa Needs Time to 'Reflect' About Running For President in 2016?

Kyle T. Webster

"11 Percent Mayor"

Alice Walton (a.k.a. The City Maven) reminded us that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa continues living on his own planet these days, discussing with a radio host in Iowa how he may or may not run for U.S. president in 2016.

With only nine months or so until he leaves office in 2013, Villaraigosa is undoubtedly on a ramped-up effort to find his next high-paying gig and a new bachelor pad to live -- he currently resides at the mayoral mansion in Hancock Park.

In 2008, L.A. Weekly took a long, hard look at Villaraigosa's daily schedule over a ten-week period. We found he spent only 11 percent of his time working on a nuts-and-bolts issues. It would be a hoot to get a copy of his current schedule.

With his frequent trips out of town to campaign for President Barack Obama, we wouldn't be surprised if Villaraigosa is averaging LESS than 11 percent on the real work of managing America's second largest city.

In fact, we can't wait to see what Villaraigosa does once the new year comes around.

By that time, the L.A. mayoral race will be in full swing, with the primary in March 2013 and a runoff in May. Will he surmise that his job is over and take a gig at the White House if it's offered, attempting to leave office early?

Former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan will probably have a pension reform initiative on the May 2013 ballot. Will Villaraigosa get involved in that political war between Riordan and the City Hall political establishment?

Villaraigosa keeps telling people he wants to "reflect" about any next moves, but we can't see him sitting still for longer than 10 minutes to do that.

And what in the heck is he going to "reflect" on? What's the best job that can assure him a three-man security detail, a free car with free gas card, and a free place to live?

It would be fantastic if Villaraigosa would tell a reporter that he's not even thinking about his future at all -- all he's concerned about right now is finishing the job he was elected to do in Los Angeles.

Even if Villaraigosa doesn't mean it, we'd love to see him say that. He's certainly not saying that now, which, of course, is a worrying sign that he already considers himself off the clock. We hope our hunch is wrong.

Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.

Tags:

Antonio Villaraigosa, Barack Obama, Los Angeles, mayor, Patrick Range McDonald, pension reform, president, Richard Riordan

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abramsrl topcommenter

This corruption was set in place by Riordan who ended any hope of civil service for top department heads and instead turned LA into corrupt patronage system. Bad as Villar may be, he is only following the game plan laid down by Riordan, who now wants to privatize city workers' Social Security under the control of Wall Street.

Most people do not realize that city employees do not get federal social security but instead they get the city pension plan. Thus, when times are bad, like right now, the city has to continue to pay the pensions. After the "city social security" is privatized, however, there is no need to pay pensions in economic hard times. Just as millions of people lost their homes after the crash of 2008, the city workers would lose their private pensions when the market crashes --- again.

That is even assuming that some Bernie Madoff or Goldman Sachs crook has not ripped off the private pension plan long before the city workers retire. Remember the people at Enron who had their pensions with Enron - they died broke. The huge advantage of Social Security, whether it is Federal Social Security which Paul Ryan wants to kill or Social security from a State of City, is that the government stands behind it. Even if Villar is as big a crook as Bernie Madoff, as long as the City avoids Bankruptcy, grandma and granddad get their pension payments.

Ten years from now, people will be complaining how terribly the city workers behave and how incompetent they are -- and the people will have forgotten that they drove away decent workers by privatizing their Social Security. It looks nice now to follow the old codger into scapegoating the city workers for our problems, but it won't look so nice when everyone on the top level is a crook and all the employees are incompetents. That combination is sure to make LA business friendly -- NOT!

BreadAndCircuses

Every city finally elects a free-spending lightweight that leaves the City broke, falling apart and gasping in a union choke hold that can probably never be undone.

Same old show: Productive businesses and people stream for the exits over potholed roads and past shuttered libraries. The only signs of life are in the seemingly ubiquitous parking ticket officers and their carts, papering cars with tickets. Expensive tickets.

Clueless media applaud the mayor for his "humanity" in over hiring under-worked city employees, and larding the budget with pensions and benefits that will supposedly be paid for by everyone else without a pension.

New York had John Lindsay. We have Tony V.

Both are a disgrace to the productive people that built the cities. True, they did not ruin the cities in one generation like the city fathers in Detroit. But once proud Los Angeles is only a few years away (if that) from bankruptcy, or a Detroit-like conservancy.

Electing a union organizer to run the 2d largest city in the US was a terribly unserious act, assisted by a ignorant media.

Now we have the consequences:

an 11% mayor who shows his dedication to his city by campaigning for Obama, talking on a radio show in Iowa.....anything but here.

- we gave up an electricity contract that provided cheap power because it came (gasp) from coal-fired generators in Utah simply because the Mayor doesn't like coal: the replacement power will cost more, drive out more business but the Mayor feels good about it;

-our city is looking at a 200m deficit next year; where is the money going to come from to close that gap? Not the state---its building a train

-Our roads are getting worse...the patches are a joke;

-We can't even persuade the one man that might have been a decent mayor--Caruso--to run, since he obviously does not want to clean up Tony V's mess.

-The Controller wants two new taxes in the middle of a depressed economy to try to paper over the debt. Anything to keep those union pensions in place .

And our mayor is in Iowa. Talking about running for President.

abramsrl topcommenter

@BreadAndCircuses Without attempting to defend Villababosa and his ilk, I believe that you have missed the bigger picture of how LA came to be so corrupt. Mayor Bradley wanted civil service to apply to all the top department heads so that merit and not political patronage would fill these positions, like Director of Planning and Fire Chief. Riordan, however, killed Bradley's Civil Service and its merit system for top department heads and made them beholden to the mayor. That's how we get a corrupt Planning Department that's run by a buffoon and a Fire Chief who lies and says that the First Responders responses times are great so that Villar and Garcetti can cut an additional $200 M from the LAFD in order to give that money to their developer buddies.

You also have to look at the criminal voting in City Council while Garcetti was council Prez. It voted unanimously over 99% of the time.

“. . . any member of the legislative body of a city ...[who] promises to give, any official vote in consideration that another [member] ... of a city shall give this vote either upon the same or another question, is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years” Penal Code, § 86

In violation of Penal Code 86 each councilmember sold his/her vote in return for each other councilmember's selling his/her vote so that every councilmember could do whatever he/she wanted within his/her own district. In other places, selling one's vote contrary to the Penal Code is considered a criminal act, but in Los Angeles, it is business as usual.

So while I agree with your laments about Villar, people should realize that LA City Hall truly is a Temple to Crimogenics. The entire system is criminally corrupt and has been for more than a decade -- Villar is first among many criminals running this city.