ALEX — Padilla Finds Success With Little Issues

Alex Padilla is ticking off his accomplishments as he approaches his first anniversary as the youngest member of the Los Angeles City Council. To his credit, he says, there is the new police station, fire station and a library in his Northeast Valley district, along with a smattering of street lights fixed, miles of sidewalks repaired, graffiti removed and shrubbery replanted. What about secession? The Rampart scandal? What about the Los Angeles Unified School District? If Padilla made headlines almost daily during his bid for the City Council seat, which he won last June, he has also been decidedly quiet on the big-picture issues that have captured most of the political limelight since his election. That absence, along with some widely publicized missteps in the early months of his term, have raised questions among political observers about the freshman councilman’s effectiveness. But most of those who have been watching Padilla regard his first, cautious steps as thoughtful, and they say he’s chosen his battles wisely. “If I were advising him, my strategy would have been for him to do exactly what he did in his first year. Sit back and listen. Pay attention,” said Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University. “And get ready to assume leadership very soon.” When Padilla was ushered into the City Council representing the Seventh District last July with 67 percent of the vote, he was regarded as something of a political phenom. At 26, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineering graduate became the youngest member of the council, and he seemed to represent the American dream as a kid from the barrio who made good. Padilla, who took over a district that includes Pacoima, the poor Northeast Valley community where he was raised and still lives, promptly packed his advisory team with young people filled with exuberance and idealism. But the new council member’s political experience was very limited. He had served as an aide to Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, D-Sylmar, but except for a stint on the Los Angeles Building and Safety Commission and on the campaign of then-L.A. City Councilman Richard Alarcon, Padilla had little experience with the machinery of city government. Soon after he took office, he failed to get Pacoima included in a federal jobs grant program, citing a lack of familiarity with the regulations concerning the disbursement of the funds. He mistakenly voted the wrong way on a planning project, only to be publicly reminded of his intention during a council meeting. And he ran afoul of the Fair Political Practices Commission when he neglected to file a timely personal assets disclosure statement, saying he thought other documents he had filed met the requirements. Despite these missteps, business leaders in Padilla’s district generally speak highly of their new councilman. “I think he’s done a good job of reaching out to the neighborhoods, particularly the youth,” said Roberto Barragan, president of the Valley Economic Development Center. “He’s been very youth-oriented. That’s something that’s very high on his agenda.” Padilla says he is proud of what he and his staff have accomplished in the limited time he has been in office. And with the exception of his work on the council’s Information Technology Committee, which he chairs, his local focus has been entirely deliberate. “Having grown up in the Northeast Valley, I know that the biggest way to impact the community is to focus on the little issues,” said Padilla. “The basic quality-of-life issues.” Instead of talking about secession, he has engineered the relocation of the Los Angeles Children’s Museum from downtown to the Hansen Dam Recreation Area and worked for a new fire station in the district. Instead of weighing in on Rampart, he has won approval for a new police station in Mission Hills. And instead of grandstanding on matters concerning the LAUSD, Padilla has secured a new library for Lake View Terrace, lobbied for funding for a job training program for Pacoima youth, and donated his pay raise, $1,500, to Telfair Elementary school in Pacoima for sorely needed supplies and programs. Constituents seem pleased Local business leaders point out that Padilla’s community efforts have already begun to leave their mark. In Sun Valley, Padilla has helped to replant a stretch of San Fernando Road, where greenery was removed to make way for other repairs. “After two years, we got the job done,” said William Slater, chairman of the governmental affairs committee for the Sun Valley Chamber of Commerce. “So far as the chamber is concerned, he’s been most cooperative with us.” In Pacoima, he is working with Walgreen Co. on its desire to open a store there. “I have found that his office has always been very willing to listen and to work with us to develop a project that makes sense,” said Robert Lamishaw, president of the Mid-Valley Chamber of Commerce and president of JPL Zoning Services Inc., which is advising Walgreen. “I would give him a solid ‘B’ rating.” Padilla says he is fulfilling his campaign promise to improve the community where he was raised. “I got a lot of heat running for office in the Valley and not being for secession,” he said. “I tell people then and now I’m still focused on making things work. If secession happens, it won’t be for awhile and my district can’t afford to wait before we start fixing potholes and focusing on kids and parks.” Term limit rules assure that Padilla will join the senior ranks of the council in the next four years and, if reelected, become the body’s ranking member before his term expires. That gives him time to learn the ins and outs of political life, pundits say. “To some extent, he encapsulates all of Latino politics,” said Guerra. “It’s a foregone conclusion that Latinos will be the majority of the City Council down the line. Instead of screwing up and creating dislikes and obstacles in the future, how do we make sure that, when Latinos take over, the city is governable and effective? Give up short-term publicity and gain for long-term stability and governance. Alex Padilla is pursuing the same strategy.”