Runoff

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel stood on the lawn of Grand Park in downtown on Sunday evening to announce her endorsement by L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, whose African American constituency is a coveted voting bloc in the May runoff election against City Councilman Eric Garcetti. It was Greuel's first appearance since a dramatic shake-up in her campaign staff late last week. She hired a new manager and four people resigned, leaving observers to wonder if the change of horses midstream indicated a lack of confidence.

After a frenzy of activity on the campaign trail in recent weeks, culminating in last week's primary election, the mayoral candidates are focusing on raising money , trotting out new endorsements and courting party and labor loyalists to build their general-election campaign machinery. On Tuesday, Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti courted two key groups- - the most influential labor coalition in the county, and the county Democrats, neither of which endorsed in the primary. Reflecting the tightness of the race, the county Democratic Party again split on which candidates to endorse in the May 21 runoff election.

A majority of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors want to back away from a proposed ballot measure that would impose a controversial parcel fee on county property owners to clean up storm water pollution. The supervisors first considered the proposal in January but deferred a vote after a hearing at which nearly 200 people spoke, the vast majority in opposition to the fee, which would range from about $54 a year for most single family homes to tens of thousands of dollars for large, industrial properties.

Faced by widespread public opposition, the Los Angeles County supervisors on Tuesday sent a proposed parcel fee to combat storm water pollution back to the drawing board. The proposed fee would be levied on all property owners within the county's flood control district, raising an estimated $290 million a year to help cities and the county deal with widespread water quality issues stemming from polluted storm water and urban runoff and the need to comply with new state regulations.

Defeated Los Angeles mayoral candidate Jan Perry warned Friday that electing a city chief executive too beholden to public employee unions could leave the city vulnerable to being "flipped over on its back, flailing, while a few insiders get what they want. " Perry, whose endorsement in the May runoff election could be significant, was aiming her remarks at City Controller Wendy Greuel, who benefited from heavy financial support from organized labor on her way to a second-place finish in Tuesday's primary.

The two candidates who earned a spot in the runoff to be Los Angeles' next mayor have little time to savor their victory. Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti must immediately start raising money , because unlike in state and federal elections, they were prohibited for raising money for the general election during the primary. And they weren't allowed to reserve any of the millions of dollars they raised in the primary for the runoff, meaning the candidates started raising new funds within hours of the polls closing Tuesday.

Jockeying to gain an edge in the mayoral runoff, Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti are highlighting plans to create jobs, cut red tape to help businesses and spur the city's economy. Garcetti on Friday discussed economic revitalization at a gourmet-sausage and craft-beer restaurant in Atwater Village, where the centerpiece of the neighborhood used to be a casket shop. Now it's a hipster haven, with a Bikram yoga studio and the trendy farm-to-table eatery Canele. And Greuel, in her first stop Wednesday after winning a spot in the runoff, dropped by an architectural design firm in the San Fernando Valley that faced a series of problems when it tried to build an innovative facility with features like a permeable parking lot. "I'm not going to hire a job czar, I'm going to be the jobs czar," she said.

The mayoral campaign entered a  new phase  Wednesday, as Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel began positioning themselves for the May 21 runoff. The fellow Democrats fought over who can best craft an image of fiscal restraint in a cash-strapped city whose voters refused to raise taxes to maintain public services. Check out a  map  by the Los Angeles Times' Data Desk to see how various parts of the city voted. The candidates spent the day after the election moving around the city.

The first round of the mayoral election ended Tuesday much the way it began, with Controller Wendy Greuel and Councilman Eric Garcetti fighting for the lead while facing the complicated task of defining themselves to voters and assembling a majority in an exceptionally diverse city. Both candidates have logical routes forward for the runoff, and both can look to historical precedent for proof they might win. Greuel can take heart from the election of 2001, when Jim Hahn came in second in the first round of the election but rebounded to victory in the runoff after moderates who'd voted for other candidates in the first round picked him over Antonio Villaraigosa.

The vast Los Angeles Community College District will gain experience and potentially greater political clout with wins by a past college president and a veteran state lawmaker to the Board of Trustees in this week's elections. But the results are not likely to radically alter the direction of an overburdened system that is the entry point for thousands of college students each year. Former East Los Angeles College president Ernest Henry Moreno and termed-out Monterey Park Democratic Assemblyman Mike Eng won solid majorities in unofficial results posted Wednesday.