First 100 Days Offer Padilla Lessons

Call around City Hall to see how Alex Padilla is doing, 100 days after he became the youngest member of the Los Angeles City Council, and you are liable to get the joking response given by Councilman Nate Holden.

“Who is Alex Padilla?” Holden quipped, feigning ignorance.

Padilla is off to a quiet start.

He got a traffic light fixed near his old elementary school.

A long-neglected stretch of Van Nuys Boulevard in front of his Pacoima office has been repaved.

But, as many colleagues note, Padilla has not yet made his presence felt in a big way on the council with any major initiatives or accomplishments. They expect he will, however.

“The guy is 26 years old and he has limited experience in politics,” said Holden, an admirer. “But he’s picking things up very quickly.”

With the help of his close alliance with Mayor Richard Riordan and his appointment to head the committee that will soon decide the high-profile issue of Internet access by cable franchises, Padilla is on the verge of emerging from the shadows.

Padilla acknowledges he has had a lot to learn in his first three months but says he has found his footing and feels he is in a position to accomplish much for his northeast San Fernando Valley district.

“It’s intense, but I knew it was going to be tough going in,” Padilla said last week. “There is a lot of hard work to do, getting to know the system and at the same time trying to accomplish things.”

Padilla has made some missteps, including fumbling a chance for money for Pacoima youth and a controversial decision to close his Sun Valley field office, at least temporarily.

But the freshman, who still lives with his parents in Pacoima, also has begun to learn the ropes.

Last week, he was able to nudge forward a long-stalled proposal to build a new police station in the north Valley.

Working closely with Riordan, who backed his election, and former mayoral aide John Lee, whom Padilla snagged for his staff, the councilman helped persuade two City Council panels to move forward with buying property in Mission Hills for the project.

“Public safety is the top priority, absolutely,” Padilla says, sounding a lot like Riordan.

Deputy Mayor Ann D’Amato said the mayor worked “hand in hand” with Padilla to jump-start the project.

The police project still faces potential obstacles in the full City Council, where big-ticket items that benefit one part of the city tend to get picked apart by jealous council members from other parts of the city.

Padilla, who graduated from MIT with an engineering degree, is showing great potential, colleagues say, even though he has generally spent most of each meeting listening.

“He’s very conscientious, very bright,” Councilman Joel Wachs said. “He’s quiet, but he’s very strong too.”

But some grumbling can already be heard in Padilla’s 7th District.

“A lot of the comments I’ve heard from people is that they think he is too young and too inexperienced, that he didn’t come from a background that would help him be a city councilman,” said Doris Jacobs, executive director of the Sun Valley Chamber of Commerce.

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Early in his term, Padilla fumbled any chance for the Pacoima area to share in $40 million in federal aid to provide job assistance for young people in the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

The funds were originally proposed for Watts, but Councilman Mike Hernandez arranged to have part of his Eastside district added.

Pacoima also was eligible, but Padilla did not press to include the community at first because, he said, he was told by city Community Development Department officials that it was not.

By the time he discovered that Pacoima could be included in the grant, it was too late. Although Padilla believes he will be able to get other federal funds to help young people in Pacoima find jobs, he acknowledges that “mistakes were made” in the handling of the application.

“The lesson I learned is you really have to scrutinize what the city departments tell you,” Padilla said.

Bill Allen, president of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, said Padilla admitted to him that he needed to be more on top of opportunities for his district in the future.

“I admire his honesty in saying this one got behind him,” Allen said. “Alex did learn an important lesson.”

Allen said there was also a political lesson to be learned from the way Hernandez, as chairman of the council’s Community Development Committee, was able to slip his district into the application originally drafted for Watts.

“We hope Alex Padilla will be as effective as Mike Hernandez has been in using the committee process to benefit his constituents,” Allen said.

Jacobs and other business leaders are still smarting from Padilla’s decision to close his field office in the Chamber of Commerce building Sept. 7. Padilla promised at the time to open a larger, more modern office nearby in 30 to 60 days; that has not yet happened.

In an interview in his sparsely furnished office at City Hall, Padilla reiterated that promise. He also cited the installation of a new traffic light near his old elementary school that now gives students more time to cross a busy street. He mentioned the repaving along Van Nuys Boulevard and said he is working on park projects. His office has been helping to revive several neighborhood watch groups.

As for broader citywide policy issues, Padilla’s only notable foray has been to propose restrictions on ATM bank fees, but he only did that after a similar proposal received preliminary approval in Santa Monica.

Padilla’s profile on citywide matters will be raised considerably in coming months when, in his role as chairman of the council’s Information Technology Committee, he takes on the issue of whether to give Internet providers open access to cable television lines.

Some City Hall observers say they would not be surprised to see Padilla follow the mayor’s lead in opposing broad access to cable systems, but Padilla said he has not yet made up his mind on the issue.

City Hall insiders say it is clear that Riordan, who has been frustrated for years with the lack of council support for his initiatives, is nurturing Padilla’s political career in hopes that he will be there for the mayor for key votes.

Riordan was a major force politically and financially in getting Padilla elected.

“We do have a good relationship. I’m proud of that,” Padilla said.

D’Amato said Riordan sees Padilla as a “long-term ally.”

In one of the first council debates, Padilla was one of the few council members to passionately support the mayor-backed proposal to create a new Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.

When it came time to appoint commissioners to oversee the department, one of Riordan’s selections was 7th District resident Carrie Castro Armour, recommended by Padilla. When Armour backed out, Riordan replaced her with another Padilla suggestion, 7th District resident Mary Louise Longoria.

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Other council members marveled that Padilla was able to have one of the important commission seats reserved for his district.

D’Amato said Padilla “definitely” has the mayor’s ear because of their shared agendas.

Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., says it is unfair to judge Padilla’s performance just 100 days into his first term.

“In time, he is going to be an excellent councilman,” Schultz said. “There is a certain period of time everyone needs to get their feet wet. We have to have patience.”