It was the first day of hearings on a controversial $11-billion plan to modernize and expand Los Angeles International Airport. In the gilded chamber of the Los Angeles City Council, airline representatives, residents and business leaders bustled around the marble columns.
One man stood out.
It wasn't just his demeanor -- the contented look of someone anticipating a big victory. It was the knowing glances cast his direction by passing officials, the council members hurrying over to whisper in his ear and squeeze his shoulder.
Miguel Contreras carried a certain amount of clout as one of the five members of the Airport Commission. But airport officials had asked him to sit in the front row on that October morning last year because of his other role.
As the leader of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, Contreras has transformed the association of 345 local unions into what is broadly acknowledged as the most formidable political machine in Southern California.
The labor leader had lobbied exhaustively for the airport expansion, which promised to create thousands of construction jobs. Before the council meeting, he had warned that those who opposed the plan would be "asked to explain their vote" when seeking labor's endorsement.
In the council chamber, he addressed the 15 elected officials.
"The labor movement encourages all of you, every single one of you who have come to us in friendship, to cast your vote in favor," Contreras told them.
Disgusted, Westchester resident and LAX expansion opponent Denny Schneider watched from a couple rows back.
" 'Godfather'-like," he recalled thinking.
The council would approve the expansion plan 12 to 3.
With his wireless glasses, slightly cherubic face and rapid-fire speech, Contreras bears little resemblance to Marlon Brando's Vito Corleone. But the son of Central Valley farmworkers, a 52-year-old union organizer who never went beyond high school, is uniformly viewed as one of the most influential people in Los Angeles.
"I can't think of anyone more powerful than Miguel," said Tim Leiweke, president of Staples Center and Anschutz Entertainment Group.
Now, however, Contreras' reputation as a power broker is on the line. His federation endorsed Mayor James K. Hahn for reelection over Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, a former union organizer it backed four years ago. Although the labor movement will have a friend in the mayor's office regardless, Contreras' future heft may rest on his ability to get his members to campaign against one of their own.
