Antonio Villaraigosa

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Antonio Villaraigosa
Image:AntonioVillaraigosa.jpg
Order	41st Mayor of Los Angeles
Term of Office	2005–present
Predecessor	James Hahn
Successor	incumbent
Date of Birth	July 23, 1953
Place of Birth	Boyle Heights, California
First Lady	Corina Villaraigosa
Profession	Politician
City Attorney	Rocky Delgadillo
City Controller	Laura Chick
Political Party	Democrat

Antonio R. Villaraigosa (born Antonio R. Villar on January 23, 1953) is the current mayor of Los Angeles, California. He is the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since 1872. [1] Villaraigosa was elected mayor of Los Angeles in a run-off election on May 17, 2005, in which he defeated incumbent mayor James Hahn. Prior to his service as mayor, Villaraigosa was the California State Assemblyman for the 45th District, the Speaker of the California State Assembly, and the Los Angeles City Councilman representing the 14th District. Before being elected to public office, Villaraigosa had a long career as a labor organizer.

1 Biography
2 Mayoralty
3 See also
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links

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Biography

Born Antonio Villar in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles' eastside of Mexican-American parentage, Villaraigosa had an unstable childhood. Although he never finished high school, he received an honorary degree from Theodore Roosevelt High School. He fell in with gangs but shook off that lifestyle and went on to attend East Los Angeles College, and eventually UCLA. While there, he was active in MEChA, a student-based civil rights organization. He obtained his degree in history, and then attended the People's College of Law, an unaccredited law school. After failing the bar four times he moved on to labor. As early as fifteen years old, he had been volunteering with the farm workers movement. He became a field representative/organizer with the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), where he made inroads with individuals that would help him make his move into politics, such as James M. Wood and Miguel Contreras, both deceased Executive Treasurers of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. Villaraigosa was also President of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Federation of Government Employees.

In 1994, Villaraigosa was elected to the California State Assembly, and just four years later, his colleagues in the legislature voted to make him the first Assembly Speaker from Los Angeles in 25 years. During those four years before he was named Speaker, he served several other positions in the Assembly leadership. He eventually became one of the leading progressive voices in the state. In 1987, he married Corina Raigosa (his second wife) and combining their names, changed his name from Villar to Villaraigosa. He ran for mayor of Los Angeles in the 2001 citywide contest but was defeated by eight percent by fellow Democrat James Hahn in a run-off election, largely because Hahn had the support of Magic Johnson. In 2003, Villaraigosa defeated incumbent Councilman Nick Pacheco to win a seat on the Los Angeles City Council representing the 14th District.

Image:Antonio Villaraigosa.jpg In the Los Angeles mayoral election that took place on March 8, 2005, Villaraigosa placed first and continued on to the run-off election held on May 17, in which he won 58.7% of the vote to Hahn's 41.3%. He is the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since 1872, when Mayor Cristóbal Aguilar (mayor from 1866 to 1868 and again from 1870 until 1872) governed over Los Angeles at a time when its population was barely 6,000.

The Nation attributes his success in 2005, as against his failure in 2001, to his adding significant number of African Americans to his earlier coalition of "Latinos, labor and white lefties", noting 2005 endorsements by Representative Maxine Waters (a Hahn supporter in 2001) and City Council member (and former police chief) Bernard Parks. Template:Ref He also won handily among West L.A.'s liberal Jewish population, and to a lesser degree, the west Valley's more conservative Jewish community. Indeed, there were only two demographic groups he did not win: white conservatives in the north west Valley, and Asian-Americans, although the latter only by the narrowest of margins.

On July 1st of 2005, Villaraigosa was sworn in as the 41st mayor of Los Angeles in an enormous ceremony, which involved an interfaith service at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, followed by a large procession to nearby City Hall. On the South Lawn of the facility, he was administered the oath of office by Stephen Reinhardt, judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court, in a ceremony attended by dignitaries such as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Governors Gray Davis, Pete Wilson, George Deukmejian, and Jerry Brown, who is currently the mayor of Oakland, California. Also attending were former Vice President Al Gore, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other cities, current and former state and local elected officials, candidates, as well as large numbers of the L.A. area counsular corps, including a large contingent of elected officials from Mexico. The ceremony was also attended by local celebrities like David Hasselhoff and Natalie Cole, who also performed the night before at his inaugural gala.

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Mayoralty

Ethics

Villaraigosa's first act as Mayor was requiring all city commissioners, his entire staff, and all city employees to sign an ethics pledge. In addition, he removed all lobbyists from city commissions and made it his policy to never appoint a lobbyist to a city commission any time during his term. These efforts were completed to restore what he believed to be a sense of corruption and lack of trust in city government.

Executive Directives and Transportation

Villaraigosa has now signed several executive directives regarding a number of issues, one of his most prominent was to ban all road construction during rush hour in traffic-plagued Los Angeles. This act was also one of the first acts he performed as the mayor. This plan was originally proposed during Villaraigosa's first run for mayor in 2001 by candidate Steve Soboroff.

His other transportation related efforts have been to take charge of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, where he serves as Chairman of the Board and has overseen the final approval of the EIR for the proposed Exposition Light Rail Line, the opening of the Orange Line busway through the San Fernando Valley and the beginning of tunneling on the currently under construction Eastside Extension of the Metro Gold Line Light Rail. One of Villaraigosa's main transportation related goals is to extend the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Red Line subway down Wilshire Boulevard to the ocean, for which he has already laid out a plan. In order to convince Congressman Henry Waxman to reverse the federal policy he created which banned tunneling under Wilshire Boulevard because of a methane gas leak during initial construction in the 1980s, Villaraigosa and Waxman appointed a board to study the risks of the area. There was a unanimous agreement that the area was safe and Congressman Waxman is beginning the steps necessary to overturn the federal ban. More recently, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has determined that it will cost 4.8 billion dollars to complete the subway, at 300 million dollars a mile, and will take approximately twenty years.

On a more local level, Villaraigosa led Operation Pothole, whose goal was to fill 35,000 potholes in 14 weeks. He surpassed that goal, filling 80,173 potholes throughout the city.

Education and Gang Prevention

Villaraigosa has made gaining control of the Los Angeles Unified School District one of his top priorities as Mayor. New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley have control of their cities' school systems. He has devoted many of his speeches to this issue.

In the first weeks of his administration, he appointed a Council of Education Advisors to find reccomendations for immediate steps that can be taken to improve public education in Los Angeles. He hopes that the implementations of those reccomendations, which range from mentoring to finding health care to creating safe passages to and from school, along with continued speeches and other means, he will establish trust among the public and convince them to vote to give him control. His efforts have been endorsed by Mayor Daley and through others in the United States Conference of Mayors, but the plan his received significant opposition among the Los Angeles Board of Education, the Superintendent of the School District, who is former Governor of Colorado Roy Romer, many in the California state legislature, and other city councils, whose cities are also a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. The opposition believes that local school board members are more accountable to constituents than a mayor with other things on his agenda, and cities outside of Los Angeles in LAUSD will be under taxation without representation because they cannot vote for the Mayor of Los Angeles. Also, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has endorsed Mayor Villaraigosa's plan, stating "We want to help him in that move, because we all know that it is inexcusable that we have more than 30 percent of our students drop out of school..." [2]

The latest challenge to LAUSD has been the request of City Controller Laura Chick to audit the operations of the school district, a proposal which has been endorsed by the Mayor and the entire Los Angeles City Council, but is strongly objected to by the Superintendent and the Board of Education. Most recently, Assemblyman Keith Richman has proposed a plan to break up the LAUSD into smaller districts, a plan reminiscent of one proposed by former mayoral advisor Steve Soboroff during his run for mayor in 2001. Villaraigosa says he will look at this plan but ultimately wants to see mayoral control.

In addition, in order to fill the seat on the Los Angeles Board of Education, which was vacated when Jose Huizar was elected to the Los Angeles City Council, a special election is being held. Monica Garcia, the chief of staff to Huizar when he was on the board, iwon the primary election with 42% of the vote. She has received the backing of Councilman Huizar and Councilwoman Greuel, Mayor Villaraigosa, and the Speaker of the California State Assembly, Fabian Nunez. Through all of these major efforts, Villaraigosa has continued the work of his predecessors, Mayors Bradley, Riordan, and Hahn, to increase Los Angeles' nationally respected after school program for elementary schools, LA's Best, and for middle schools, LA's Bridges. LA's Bridges is more focused on preventing at risk children to join gangs and encouraging current gang members to drop out.

Animal Services Controversy

During the election, Villaraigosa appeared before a coalition of animal rights activists and pledged if elected he would implement a no-kill policy for Animal Services and fire General Manager Guerdon Stuckey, an appointee of former Mayor Hahn. Stuckey earned their ire for a lack of experience, a bungled city spay/neuter contract, refusal to cooperate with the Los Angeles Animal Commission and excessive euthanasia of animals held by Animal Services. Stuckey's supporters claimed that he had been reducing the number of animals killed in the city every year. After obtaining input from moderates in the animal community, Villaraigosa fired Stuckey. Stuckey appealed the firing to the City Council and threatened a lawsuit. The council awarded Stuckey a $50,000 consulting fee with the agreement that there would be no lawsuit. Sympathy for Stuckey by a few Councilmembers was partly in reaction to a campaign against Stuckey by some in the animal rights movement that included a smoke bomb and picketing. In addition, there was concern for racial discrimination because Stuckey is black. Villaraigosa then appointed Ed Boks to the General Manager position. Template:Fact

Economic Development, Housing, and Homelessness

Villaraigosa believes strongly, like all other politicians, that the city requires a strong and healthy economy to be beneficial in other areas, like housing. He has found compromises in several labor disputes, including a highly publicized hotel workers protest while he was still the mayor-elect. He has also supported the construction of LA Live, a multibillion dollar development by Staples Center, which will add a theatre, movie theatres, hotel, retail and restaurant space, open space, and broadcast facilties; the project has broken ground during his administration. In addition, the tax reforms created by Councilmembers Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti and former Mayor James Hahn have also taken effect during his administration. In terms of housing, Mayor Villaraigosa proposed placing an initiative on the ballot which will fund 500 million dollars of affordable housing. In addition, he has infused an additional 50 million dollars into the Housing Trust Fund, created by former Mayor Hahn, which he has devoted exclusively to housing and programming for the homeless population. The homeless population has become a major issue during his administration and he has recently been appointed to chair a task force on poverty and opportunity for the United States Conference of Mayors.

Public Safety and Homeland Security

During Hahn's administration, public safety was the number one concern and Hahn presided over significant decreases in crime every year. His program included bringing in William Bratton as police chief, restored community policing, and implemented a flexible work week schedule. Villaraigosa has pledged to continue all of these efforts and continues to see drops in all areas of crime. Villaraigosa recently proposed a Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness initiative, which builds upon the work of Hahn with programs like Operation Archangel, adds certain units to the Los Angeles Police and Fire Departments, adds positions to each department, and reorganizes some of the current practices. Villaraigosa's latest development in the policy realm of homeland security is the creation of his Homeland Security Advisors, a group of approximately 40 leaders. Some of the high profile selections include former Mayor Richard Riordan and Police Chief William Bratton. The group will be co-chaired by his Deputy Mayor for Homeland Security and Public Safety Maurice Suh and Los Angeles City Councilman Jack Weiss. Villaraigosa has proven that Los Angeles is ready for a natural disaster or terrorist attack based upon the city's responses to the terrorist bombings in London and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which hit the Gulf Coast, but wants to strengthen local readiness and response.

Reputation

Villaraigosa has gained a reputation as a national leader in the Democratic party, many believe because he is a Latino who has risen to his position of power from a tough childhood. He has been featured on the cover of Newsweek Magazine with the accompanying headline "Latino Power" and has been featured in Time Magazine as one of the 25 most influential Latinos. Villaraigosa delivered the Democratic Party's Spanish-language response to President George W. Bush's 2006 State of the Union address from his mayoral residence, The Getty House. Villaraigosa is the first mayor since Tom Bradley who has opted to live in The Getty House; both Mayors Riordan and Hahn chose to stay in their own homes.

On the other hand, there is still some lingering resentment from his district after breaking the promise to serve a full term in the city council. He has remained mum about plans for higher office. Among conservatives, he is often referred to derisively as Mayor Reconquista because of his membership in MEChA and his support for amnesty for illegal immigrants.

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