Mayors

The attorney for Michelle Holden, wife of Pasadena's current mayor, said Friday that prosecutors have the wrong victim in a sensational statutory rape case that carries political overtones. Lawyer Mark J. Geragos said he will show that his client, a 35-year-old mother of four, was the victim of a sexual assault by her two teenage accusers and not an instigator, as prosecutors have portrayed her. He described the teenagers as "gangbanger wannabes."

The Rev. Hamel Hartford Brookins, an influential bishop and former pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles who became a political power broker, civil rights leader and mentor to former Mayor Tom Bradley, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and many others, has died. He was 86. The son of Mississippi sharecroppers, Brookins rose to prominence in the 1960s and '70s as an articulate, self-assured champion of black political empowerment. He died Tuesday at a Los Angeles retirement center where he had been receiving hospice care, a church spokesman said.

Stu Rasmussen promised a new administration if he was elected, and he's as good as his word: Silverton residents not only are getting a new mayor; they're also getting a new Stu. Rasmussen, longtime manager of the local cinema, was also elected mayor in 1988 and 1990, and served four years -- but that was when he was wearing slacks and sport shirts to council meetings.

In a twist on a theme that has flared up on the national political stage, labor unions representing Los Angeles city workers are accusing Democratic Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of waging war against women, saying most of his proposed layoffs would hit jobs traditionally held by female workers. In his proposed budget now under review by the City Council, Villaraigosa calls for eliminating 231 filled positions. Individual employees who would lose jobs have not been identified, but roughly 90% of the positions targeted are clerk, secretarial and other jobs mostly held by women.

In a surprise announcement, Mayor Maureen O'Connor said Monday night she will not seek reelection when her term expires in 1992. O'Connor, who at age 25 in the mid-'70s was the youngest council member ever elected in the city and who later became its first woman mayor, said she will not seek another term and instead will devote her time to pushing for a series of fundamental campaign and ethical reforms at City Hall.

In the midst of the worst electoral showing in 68 years by this nation's long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party last week, Vicente Teran Uribe is a bright spot--a clear winner and possibly a symbol of the future PRI. The landslide victory of the 41-year-old businessman, who funded his own campaign for mayor of this border town, came despite--and even with the aid of--a recent U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration report that named him as one of Mexico's 20 top narcotics traffickers.

As Congress continues to debate the soaring national debt, a cohort of mayors on Monday descended on the White House to deliver one message to President Obama: "Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs," as Los Angeles' Antonio Villaraigosa put it. In the second such meeting with Obama this year, 14 mayors advised the president to resolve the debt limit crisis quickly and focus on the needs of metropolitan economies.   "The clock is ticking" on the debt crisis, Villaraigosa, who assumed the role of president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors this weekend, told reporters after the meeting.

In a new role that will raise his national profile, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa assumes the presidency of the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Monday, putting him on the front lines in the fight over federal budget cuts and in a good position to secure Washington's help with his pet project: speeding expansion of the transportation system back home. "Mayors, we can't afford to be timid," Villaraigosa declares in an address that he will deliver to fellow mayors in Baltimore on Monday.

If he was nervous, Salvador Vergara Cruz didn't act it. The mayor of this well-groomed town in central Mexico, Vergara traveled without bodyguards even after callers to his cellphone tried to extort $70,000 from him, and demanded that he play ball with drug traffickers, friends said. "He didn't give them what they wanted," said Raymundo Fuentes, a city councilman. "What happened was bound to happen." On Oct.

Willie Brown, the savvy career politician who led this liberal city through the carnival dot-com boom and bust, will leave office later this year after completing the second of two colorful terms as "Da Mayor." Yet many believe San Francisco's real thrill ride lies just ahead: electing a mayoral successor in a town infamous for its circus-style political theater.

COLUMBUS, N.M. - From a small hill at a state park here, the border town of Palomas, Mexico, can be made out through the desert haze. It lies four miles to the south, but the corruption that roils Palomas and the rest of Northern Mexico may as well be a block away. Last year, black sedans and hatchbacks loaded with federal agents poured into Columbus, a town of 2,000 people, arresting the mayor, the police chief, a city trustee and nine others. They have all pleaded guilty in a gun-smuggling operation that sold about 100 firearms, mostly assault rifles, to Mexican drug cartels.

When Austin Beutner entered the mayor's race last year, it looked like the wealthy former investment banker and onetime city jobs czar might give the Los Angeles business community its best chance in years at regaining influence at City Hall. His abrupt exit from the campaign this week after struggles with fundraising and a poor showing in the polls highlights the decline of political power that was once wielded by the city's business elite. That weakening comes as the business sector's traditional rivals - organized labor and environmental activists - are enjoying increasing influence.

Austin Beutner's early departure from the Los Angeles mayor's race in one sense does not change much: The businessman had yet to make an impression with voters, so they will not likely miss him. And yet Beutner's absence means the race now lacks a certain type of candidate - the City Hall critic with genuine civic experience - and creates the opportunity for the remaining candidates to begin defining themselves more clearly. So far, there's not much to work with in that regard.

Austin Beutner, the wealthy former investment banker who struggled to gain traction in his yearlong campaign for Los Angeles mayor, dropped out of the race Tuesday. In an email to supporters, Beutner said he wants to spend more time with his wife and four young children. And in an unusual move, he pledged to pay back every person who contributed to his campaign. His exit comes after months of fundraising struggles, churn among his campaign staff and a recent poll that showed him capturing a dismal 2% of the likely vote in next year's election to replace Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who will be termed out. Beutner says money wasn't a factor in his decision, and said he had been prepared to pump his personal wealth into the campaign to accrue name recognition.

Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa is pursuing another big boost in parking ticket fines, leaving some of them 70% to 90% more expensive than the year he was elected - and several times the region's inflation rate. With the latest proposed hikes, the city would collect about $40 million a year more than during Villaraigosa's first year in office, much of it from street-sweeping violations that leave many residents fuming. The mayor's budget calls for the street-sweeping penalty to reach $78, more than in any neighboring city and, in certain cases, nearly twice the amount charged elsewhere in Los Angeles County.

LONDON — It's another gold medal for BoJo. Boris Johnson won a second term as mayor of London on Friday in a marquee contest between two of Britain's biggest personalities to run the country's biggest city. Johnson's victory after a hard-fought, profanity-laced campaign guarantees that it will be his endearingly goofy face, framed by a perpetually awful haircut, that will welcome millions of spectators and athletes to the Summer Olympics here in the British capital, which kick off in less than three months.

The mayor of Portland said Sunday that he would not resign despite calls for him to do so after he admitted lying and asking a teenager to lie about their sexual relationship. "Tomorrow, I go back [to] work as your mayor. I know I have let you down and made mistakes. I ask your forgiveness," Mayor Sam Adams said in a statement. "I believe I have a lot to offer the city I love during this time of important challenges." Adams, who was sworn in Jan.

Kasim Reed, an attorney and former Georgia state senator, will be sworn in as Atlanta's next mayor after a recount Wednesday confirmed he had won a runoff election. City Councilwoman Mary Norwood sought the recount after coming up 715 votes short in the Dec. 1 balloting, or fewer than 1% of the total cast. Reed's margin of victory ended up at 714 votes, Fulton County officials said. "Campaign season is over, and I want everyone to know I have the utmost respect for Mrs. Norwood and take no personal pleasure in her concession today," Reed said in a statement.

Deep budget cuts to the Los Angeles park system in recent years have resulted in shortened park hours, fewer youth programs and closed pools. Now, as city lawmakers take up Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's proposed budget for the coming year, a new coalition is lobbying for restoration of park funding. The consortium of conservationists, community leaders and unions, led by developer Steve Soboroff, earned a small victory Monday when two City Council members joined a news conference and signed a pledge to protect parks.

Kevin James, if you haven't already heard, is running for mayor of Los Angeles. If you're out there thinking, "Sure, why not try a comedian/actor," I'm sorry to disappoint, but this is not the guy who played "Paul Blart: Mall Cop. " This Kevin James is an attorney and former federal prosecutor who used to host a radio talk show. I met him a year ago and asked what would happen to his show if by some strange happenstance he got elected, and James said he'd work himself to the point of near-collapse all week, correcting the horrific mistakes of his predecessors.