Hahn Sworn In as Mayor, Lays Out Course of Action

* Create a $100-million housing trust fund.

* Back the newly forming neighborhood councils, created by the enactment of Los Angeles' new city charter.

But the emotional power of the day was shaped by various pleas for Hahn to bring together Los Angeles' disparate groups, which split largely along ethnic lines in the mayor's race. Though Hahn won the bulk of African American support, Villaraigosa was supported overwhelming by the city's Latinos.

Monday's inaugural ceremony seemed carefully crafted to bridge that divide. Nancy Agosto, morning anchor for Spanish-language television station KMEX-TV, acted as master of ceremonies, while many African American ministers who supported Hahn surrounded him on stage. Catholic, Protestant and Jewish leaders each offered their prayers for the new mayor.

"You and we enter an agreement today, Mr. Mayor," said Rabbi Allen Freehling of University Synagogue. "Together, let us move Los Angeles to become a magnificent mosaic of diversity . . . to become an interactive community in which men, women and children rely upon on their multiplicity of ethnic backgrounds to strive together."

The new mayor echoed those sentiments, saying that the most important lesson he gleaned from the campaign was "that there is much more that unites us than divides us."

Hahn's inauguration was also buoyed by a sense of a political rebirth for African Americans, who figured prominently in the day's ceremony and promise to be staunch supporters of his administration, at least in its early days.

"James Hahn does not come to us as a stranger," intoned the Rev. Cecil "Chip" Murray of the First AME Church, calling him "tested, tried, proven."

"So today, we join our hands, we join our hearts with James Hahn, asking him to lift us up where we belong, where eagles fly," he said.

"Fly, Jimmy, fly!" Murray added, urging to the audience to join him in the chant.

Hahn approached Monday's event emphasizing his commitment to blacks.

"The African American community, I think, felt a little bit left out maybe the last eight years," Hahn said at a Sunday church service in South Los Angeles. Congregants nodded and clapped. "We want to make sure everybody gets left in."

In his speech Monday, Hahn quoted former Mayor Bradley, the city's first and only African American mayor, saying, "If it is possible, we will do it here."

Hahn's speech was brief, just 11 minutes. Concluding, he promised to "speak less and work more," and then added with gusto: "Let's get to work!"

Hundreds of supporters, many clad in white inaugural baseball caps, crowded under the jacaranda trees on the lawn and cheered on Hahn, interrupting his address with applause at least 17 times.

"I like the simplicity of the speech, and the hands-on feeling about it," said Louise Frankel, a Westside resident who hurried to get in line to shake the new mayor's hand. "It was friendly; it wasn't pretentious."

Hahn's conciliatory tone and specific promises for progress won over some city leaders who had supported Villaraigosa.

"I thought he hit on all the right notes," said Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski. "He talked about housing and police recruitment and neighborhoods. He knows this is a government that also includes council members, the city attorney and the controller. We are all a team."

City Councilman Eric Garcetti said Hahn is going to "knock some people out with how well he does" on addressing issues such as housing, transportation and police reform, and called the inaugural address "classic Jim Hahn."

"It was, 'Let's get down to business,' " he said. "It was not about the flowery rhetoric; it was about the actual accomplishments."

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Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this story.

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