Antonio Villaraigosa
Learn more about Antonio Villaraigosa
| Antonio Villaraigosa | |
| Order | 41st Mayor of Los Angeles |
| Term of Office | 2005–present |
| Predecessor | James Hahn |
| Successor | incumbent |
| Date of Birth | January 23, 1953 |
| Place of Birth | Boyle Heights, California |
| First Lady | Corina Villaraigosa |
| Profession | Politician |
| City Attorney | Rocky Delgadillo |
| City Controller | Laura N. Chick |
| Political Party | Democratic |
Antonio Ramon Villaraigosa (born Antonio Ramon Villar, Jr. on January 23, 1953) is the current mayor of Los Angeles, California. He is the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since Cristobal Aguilar in 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.
[edit] Biography
Born Antonio Ramon Villar in the City Terrace neighborhood of Los Angeles County's eastside, Villaraigosa had a difficult childhood. He attended both Catholic and Public schools. He went to Harrison Street School for 3rd and 4th grade during 1961 and 1962. His 3rd grade teacher was Mr. Oishi. He attended Cathedral High School, but did not graduate from the Catholic institution. He graduated from Roosevelt High School, and with the help of his teacher Herman Katz, went on to attend East Los Angeles College, and eventually transferred to UCLA, at which he obtained a bachelors degree in history.
After UCLA, Villaraigosa attended the People's College of Law (PCL), an unaccredited "community-run law school" in Los Angeles. Despite four attempts, Villaraigosa has not passed the California Bar Exam, and thus remains unlicensed to practice law [2]. After PCL, 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 former 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. On May 12, 2006 he was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Southern California (USC) where he also addressed the graduating Class of 2006 as Commencement Speaker.
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 liberal voices in the state. In 1987, he married Corina Raigosa 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. In 2003, Villaraigosa defeated incumbent Councilman Nick Pacheco to win a seat on the Los Angeles City Council representing the 14th District.
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. 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 involving 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 United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in a ceremony attended by dignitaries such as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Governors Gray Davis, Pete Wilson, 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 international elected officials. The ceremony was also attended by local celebrities like David Hasselhoff and Natalie Cole, who also performed the night before at his inaugural gala.
[edit] Mayoralty
[edit] 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 remove what he believed to be a sense of corruption and lack of trust in city government.
[edit] Executive directives and transportation
Villaraigosa has now signed seven 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 previously served as Chairman of the Board. At the end of his year long term, the chairmanship rotated to County Supervisor Gloria Molina. Villaraigosa currently serves as a Vice Chair. As Chairman, he oversaw 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 introduced legislation to overturn the federal ban. The House of Representatives passed the bill and with the leadership of Senator Dianne Feinstein, it is being ushered through the Senate for a vote. 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. Finding funds for the project and all the construction was estimated to 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. After the success of Operation Pothole, he announced an intiative, currently in operation, to fill 300,000 potholes throughout the city.
[edit] 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 much of his time to this issue.
In the first weeks of his administration, he appointed a Council of Education Advisors to find recommendations for immediate steps that can be taken to improve public education in Los Angeles. Some of the recommendations created by that Council include mentoring, providing thorough health care, and creating safe passages to and from school.
In his first annual State of the City address, he announced his intention to assume full control of the Los Angeles Unified School District. He also announced that he essentially would bypass voters and have the State Legislature give him the power, instead of the public electorate. The school board and teachers' union immediately protested and support among the community was lukewarm. Consequently, Villaraigosa reached a compromise with leaders of the city and state teachers' unions and state legislators. In the compromise, a Council of Mayors would be created, consisting of the Mayors of each of the cities served by LAUSD. The votes of each mayor would be proportionate to the city's population, thus giving Villaraigosa 80% of the vote, and most often, the final say of what happens. The Council of Mayors reviews the budget and must approve the Board of Education's choice for Superintendent. Also, the board's powers would be reduced while the Superindentent would gain more authority in shaping instructional methods, the contracting processes, and would be in charge of the facilities division. In addition, Villaraigosa, himself, would be in charge of three of the lowest performing schools in the district and their feeder elementary and middle school campuses. His efforts to gain more control have been endorsed by Mayors Daley and Bloomberg, of Chicago and New York, respectively, who have each gained control of their city's respective school districts and seen positive results.
The bill created to implement these desired changes, labeled AB 1381, was written by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and State Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, with strong support from State Legislators Dario Frommer and Don Perata. To help gain support for the bill from the general community, Villaraigosa led four town hall style forums in South, East, and West Los Angeles, as well as the San Fernando Valley. After being amended several times, the bill passed the Assembly Education Committee, full Assembly, Senate Education and Appropriations Committees, and the full State Senate, thus, passing the bill. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has endorsed Mayor Villaraigosa's plan and recently signed it into law, 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..." [4]
From the beginning and to this day, even after passage, the plan has received significant opposition among the Los Angeles Board of Education, primarily Board President Marlene Canter, the Superintendent of the School District, Roy Romer, some 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.
Several challenges have risen during the Mayor's bid for more control. One was 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. Another was Assemblyman Keith Richman's proposal 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 2000 and Bob Hertzberg in his campaign in 2005. 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 Unified School District, which was vacated when José Huizar was elected to the Los Angeles City Council, a special election was held. Monica Garcia, the chief of staff to Huizar when he was on the board, won the election. She received the backing of Councilman Huizar and Councilwoman Greuel, Mayor Villaraigosa, and the Speaker of the California State Assembly, Fabian Núñez. She, to date, is the only member of the Board of Education that supports Mayor Villaraigosa's plan.
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 focused on preventing at risk children from joining gangs and encouraging current gang members to drop out.
[edit] 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 the ire of animal rights activists for what they considered to be his 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 some Councilmembers was partly in reaction to an at times violent 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.[5]
[edit] Economic development, housing, and homelessness
Villaraigosa believes 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 1 billion 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.
[edit] 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, restoring community policing, and implementing 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. In 2006, Villaraigosa proposed an increase of trash fees to hire about 1,000 LAPD officers over the next four years. The proposal was passed by the Los Angeles City Council.
[edit] Energy and the Environment
Villaraigosa has urged the Department of Water and Power to make 20% of all energy, natural energy, by 2017. He has encouraged the continued conversion of the city's fleet of vehicles into clean natural energy vehicles. Most significantly, he has overseen the historic Clean Air Ports Action Plan between the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which will significantly improve air quality. Villaraigosa is a supporter of recreation and parks, and the concept of "green urbanism", making Los Angeles a pedestrian and environment friendly city. This can be evidenced by his hiring of Gail Goldberg as Los Angeles' new Planning Director. While Planning Director in San Diego, Goldberg worked on making San Diego a city of villages, each intricately linking pedestrian activity, public transportation, housing, and environmental practices. The mayor recently announced his initiative to plant one million new trees throughout the City of Los Angeles.
[edit] Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs
Mayor Villaraigosa has visited Sacramento and Washington DC numerous times to lobby on behalf of his educational and transportation related intiatives. He has also sought millions of dollars in grants for public safety, homeland security, transportation, homelessness, and other causes.
In October of 2006, he travelled to England for several days and Asia for a sixteen day trade mission. In England, he will visit London and Manchester, at the invitation of Prime Minister Tony Blair, and will speak about Los Angeles' efforts regarding global warming, homeland security and emergency preparedness, and its current bid for the 2016 Olympic Games. Prime Minister Blair visited Mayor Villaraigosa a couple months ago in Los Angeles.
In Asia, he visited several cities in China, Japan, and South Korea. He promoted Los Angeles' airports, including LAX and regional airports, the Port of Los Angeles, and the city as a tourist destination. During his mission, his Office of Communications made daily announcments.
He has stated that he is interested in going to Israel, a trip that could possibly be planned for the future and has developed a relationship with the mayor of the Israeli town of Sderot.
[edit] Reputation
Villaraigosa has gained a reputation as a national leader in the Democratic party. He has been featured on the cover of Newsweek with the accompanying headline, "Latino Power", has been featured in Time as one of the country's 25 most influential Latinos. Villaraigosa makes frequent trips to both Sacramento and Washington DC and makes appearances on national news programming and at events of prominence, such as the White House Correspondents Dinner. 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, Riordan in his mansion in Brentwood, and Hahn in his single-family house in San Pedro.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
<references/>
- ↑ (unsigned article), "Progressive City Leaders", The Nation, June 18, 2005, p.18-19.
- Reaching across LA's ethnic divide, David Willis, BBC News Los Angeles (May 17, 2005)
[edit] External links
- Campaign website for Antonio Villaraigosa
- Biography from the Office of the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles
- Antonio Villaraigosa Political History
- La Prensa: A political analysis of the 2001 election
- Photos on campaign website for Antonio Villaraigosa
- Antonio Villaraigosa Educational Campaign, conducted by Andrew Jones.
- CityMayors profile
- Schmal, John P. "The Four Latino Mayors of Los Angeles," HispanicVista, May 23, 2005
- Antonio Villaraigosa: A President Who Will Fight for All Americans
- LA Weekly: Antonio Villaraigosa Interview Transcript
- Antonio Villaraigosa: Alcalde de Los Angeles?
- Beyond Chron: Villaraigosa Provides Progressive Vision for Urban America
- "Familiar Ring to Mayor's Agenda By Jim Newton, Los Angeles Times
| Preceded by: James Hahn | Mayor of Los Angeles, California July 1, 2005 – present | Incumbent |
| Preceded by: Nick Pacheco | Member of the Los Angeles City Council, 14th District 2003–2005 | Succeeded by: José Huizar |
| Preceded by: Cruz Bustamante | Speaker of the California State Assembly February 26 1998–April 13 2000 | Succeeded by: Bob Hertzberg |
| Preceded by: Richard Polanco | California State Assemblyman, 45th District 1994–2000 | Succeeded by: Jackie Goldberg |
| Mayors of Los Angeles, California
<td style="vertical-align: middle; width: 1px" rowspan="2"> Image:La seal.jpg </td> |
|---|
| Hodges • Wilson • Nichols • Coronel • S. Foster • Dr. Foster • S. Foster • Requena • Nichols • Marchessault • Mellus • Woodworth • Marchessault • Marcarel • Aguilar • Turner • Aguilar • Toberman • Beaudry • MacDougal • Cohn • Toberman • Thom • Spence • Workman • Bryson • Hazard • Bonsali • Rowan • Rader • Snyder • Eaton• Snyder • McAleer • Harper • Stephens • Alexander • Rose • Sebastian • Woodman • Snyder • Cryer • Porter • Shaw • Bowron • Poulson • Yorty • Bradley • Riordan • Hahn • Villaraigosa |
| Speakers of the California State Assembly
<td style="vertical-align: middle; width: 1px" rowspan="2"> Image:CaliforniaAssemblySeal.PNG </td> |
|---|
| White • Bigler • Hammond • Wall • Fairfax • Stow • Farley • Beatty • Whiteside • Stratton • Moore • Burnell • Barstow • Machin • Sears • Yule • Ryland • Rogers • Shannon • Estee • Carpenter • Berry • Cowdery • Parks • LaRue • Parks • Jordan • Howe • Coombs • Gould • Lynch • Coombs• Anderson • Pendleton • Fisk • Prescott • Beardslee • Stanton • Hewitt • Young • Wright • Merriam • Levey • Little • Craig • Jones • Peek • Garland • Lyon • Collins • Silliman • Lincoln • Brown • Unruh • Monagan • Moretti • McCarthy • Brown • Allen • Setencich • Pringle • Bustamante • Villaraigosa • Hertzberg • Wesson • Núñez |
es:Antonio Villaraigosa fr:Antonio Villaraigosa nl:Antonio Villaraigosa fi:Antonio Villaraigosa
