Garcetti May Be Losing Grip on Top Job
After more than two months of controversy surrounding a star-crossed move to ease term limits for his colleagues, Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti said he has heard talk that he may be ousted from the top post.
Though he believes it is just idle chatter, it is an odd spot for Garcetti. He has held the post for almost nine months, shaping the makeup of committees and acting as the city's second-in-command to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Although he entered the job as a policy wonk pledging to focus on issues and advocate for clean government, Garcetti has had to spend much of his time trying to please the colleagues who unanimously elected him -- and who with eight of 15 votes can take the presidency away.
Most recently, a ballot measure pushed by Garcetti to allow council members to serve more time in office ran afoul of a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge who declared it unconstitutional. The city, at Garcetti's urging, appealed the decision, and the measure remains on the Nov. 7 ballot pending a court date next month.
But privately, some council members believe it won't pass and blame Garcetti for mishandling the issue.
Even some of Garcetti's longtime supporters in his district are unhappy. "I still think that Eric is a good council member, but I'm troubled by a lot of the things that have happened during his council presidency," said Jason Lyon, a member of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council. "I also think he has trampled on his own ideals at times."
In an interview last week, Garcetti said he feels he is on strong footing.
"I live my life moving forward and not listening to the armchair prognosticators," Garcetti said. "I feel like we're taking care of the public's business, and it's a place where the old fights between council members aren't happening. It's not something that makes headlines when people get along."
The main job of the president is to run meetings and make committee assignments. Garcetti came into the post wanting to make something more of it and to fashion a broad citywide vision for the council, whose members usually tend first to their specific districts.
It has proved to be a difficult task. L.A.'s council members have long been known as mini-mayors because of the size of their districts, which have populations larger than most American cities. Complicating matters, the council president is also the public face of the body, for better or worse.
