Tensions on L.A. council
For some members of the Los Angeles City Council, the ruckus over a recent visit by the Airbus A380 jumbo jet crystallized a gnawing tension between them and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
The mayor, celebrating the plane's inaugural trip to Los Angeles International Airport, toured the craft with the media in tow as four council members on the runway below were momentarily blocked from joining the entourage -- and later complained mightily about it.
"The plane holds 550 people, and yet I didn't think it was going to hold the mayor and a couple of council members at the same time," Councilwoman Janice Hahn quipped later.
In the grand scheme of governing the nation's second-largest city, the incident may not have amounted to much, but it spoke to a persistent strain between Villaraigosa and some on the 15-member council.
And that strain could soon reach far beyond City Hall offices as the council and mayor grapple with many pressing issues, including upcoming cuts in the city's budget, downtown's nascent resurgence and efforts to expand the Los Angeles Police Department.
During his first year in office, Villaraigosa enjoyed a prolonged honeymoon with the council, rarely encountering resistance to his initiatives. Last year, council members passed his budget unanimously, though it included a trash collection fee increase.
But the fragile relationship has wobbled in recent months as the council and mayor clashed over plans to clean up skid row, a $2.7-million discrimination settlement for a firefighter who was fed dog food by his co-workers, and a council plan to boost residential development downtown by selling "air rights" that could be used to get around density limitations.
The relationship will be tested even more this month as Villaraigosa unveils his budget for next year -- a financial blueprint that is expected to greatly rein in spending and hinder any initiatives the council may have in mind.
Villaraigosa, who sat on the council for two years before he was elected mayor in 2005, has built a coalition of reliable votes on the council, including Jack Weiss, Wendy Greuel, Dennis Zine and Jose Huizar, and to a lesser extent Ed Reyes and Bill Rosendahl. Most of the others have been willing to break with the mayor when they saw fit.
The mayor said he respects the council's authority, even if he bumps heads from time to time with individual members. As for last month's Airbus incident, Villaraigosa called it a misunderstanding for which he later apologized.
