L.A. Votes: Greuel, Garcetti navigate union waters, roast colleague

As the mayoral candidates crossed the two-month mark until the runoff election, Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti are struggling with a bit of a paradox -- the two long-time, pro-labor Democrats are jockeying over which of them is more likely to stand up to city-employee union demands.

Both candidates have labor backing, but the most influential and deep-pocketed unions have thrown their support behind Greuel. That has resulted in a political dynamic few expected -- Greuel has emerged as the de facto labor candidate while Garcetti has been painted as a union nemesis.

Greuel has been forced on the defense as some of her business backers grew uncomfortable with recent statements she made about city employee retirement benefits. On Thursday, Greuel responded to questions from the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, affirming  her support for making new cuts in pension costs and assuring them that she has no interest in challenging any of the reductions in benefits that have already been approved.

FULL COVERAGE: L.A.'s race for mayor

Garcetti and Greuel appeared together Thursday night for the first time since winning runoff spots in the March 5 primary. A swanky benefit for diabetes research at the Beverly Hilton was billed as a roast of Councilman Tom LaBonge, but most eyes were focused on the mayoral candidates. Greuel and Garcetti poked barbs at each other while they poked fun at themselves.

Meanwhile, fund-raising continues to take up large quantities of the candidates’ time as they try to replenish coffers drained by their testy primary.

Garcetti is on an East Coast fund-raising swing. Tonight, he is collecting checks at a reception at the New York City home of Hilary and Peter Hatch. Garcetti’s connection with the hosts is deep -- the councilman officiated at the couple’s 2005 wedding. Peter Hatch formerly worked for presidential candidate John Edwards and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. On Saturday, Garcetti heads to Miami to raise more money.

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While Greuel’s plans for the weekend haven't been disclosed, the candidate sent out a fund-raising plea to supporters Thursday that said, “Let’s make history – and then have a big group hug when we win on May 21.”

Meanwhile, in the city attorney’s race, incumbent Carmen Trutanich called on two companies to turn off more than 100 digital billboards, and opponent Mike Feuer accused him of seizing on the issue to play politics. Feuer has racked up many major endorsements in the race, but on Thursday, county Supervisor Gloria Molina bucked the trend by backing Trutanich.

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-- Seema Mehta

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Photo: Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel speaks to supporters at election night gatherings. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times; Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

After pension meeting, business group reaffirms support for Greuel

The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce on Thursday reaffirmed its support for mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel after calling her in to clarify remarks she made about retirement benefits.

Chamber president Gary Toebben said Greuel reassured his group that she is looking to make new cuts in pension costs and has no interest in challenging any of the reductions in benefits that have already been approved. The chamber's political action committee endorsed Greuel in February.

FULL COVERAGE: L.A.'s race for mayor

"She assured us she has no intent to make an effort to roll back any of the pension reforms that have already taken place at the city," Toebben said, "and that her goal would be to sit at the table and negotiate more reforms in the future."

Toebben said Greuel did not offer specific proposals during the hourlong meeting. "She did say that what we have done in the past she supports, but that it's not enough and won't lead us to fiscal solvency," he added.

Greuel left without speaking to The Times. "She's on a tight schedule," said spokeswoman Shannon Murphy.

Greuel was asked to appear before the chamber after she told The Times she would reopen negotiations with city unions on a decision to increase the retirement age and reduce pensions for new hires. She backtracked a few days later, saying she only wants to talk with union leaders about avoiding a lawsuit over the cuts, which take effect July 1.

For weeks, Greuel has sided with city unions who say the city failed to properly negotiate the pension changes before imposing them. That argument is at the heart of a challenge by the unions, who want city officials to rescind the reductions.

The pension rollbacks are designed to save $4 billion over three decades, according to city budget officials.

Greuel campaign co-chairman Bob Hertzberg, a former Assembly speaker, sought to reassure chamber officials earlier this week, sending an email saying Greuel would explore increasing the retirement age for existing city employees.

Toebben said the chamber also will reschedule a campaign fundraiser for Greuel that was originally set for this week. It was canceled because of last-minute scheduling and a weak response, he said.

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-- David Zahniser at Los Angeles City Hall

twitter.com/davidzahniser

Photo: Los Angeles City Controller and mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel. Credit: Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times

L.A. Votes: Endorsements flow as Greuel and Garcetti seek edge

A new stream of endorsements emerged in Los Angeles' mayoral race Wednesday as Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti sought an edge in the May 21 runoff. The backing has two overarching goals – blunting criticism the two Democrats are facing about their ability to confront the most pressing financial problems in the city, and courting voters who supported candidates who did not survive the primary.

Greuel won the backing of former Republican Mayor Richard Riordan, who pledged he would serve as a senior advisor to her administration for a salary of $1 a year. This move, long sought by Greuel, comes as the city controller has faced increased heat about her support by the city’s labor unions and recent statements about her views on pension reductions for newly hired city employees. The latter prompted the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, which has backed Greuel, to call on the controller to explain her position on retirement benefits in person today.

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Greuel’s campaign hit back, with a co-chairman of her campaign, former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, promising that Greuel would fight to cut retirement costs at City Hall, including by exploring raising retirement age for existing city employees, a hugely controversial proposal.

Greuel’s rival Garcetti, who edged her in the March 5 primary, also named new endorsements on Wednesday. He picked up the backing of Republican developer Steve Soboroff and an influential African American Democratic club, which could help Garcetti make inroads with two key groups he and Greuel are battling over: white GOP voters in the Valley and black Democrats in South Los Angeles.

FULL COVERAGE: L.A.'s race for mayor

In other city races, the candidates seeking to become Los Angeles’ next city attorney clashed in the first runoff debate, with incumbent Carmen Trutanich and challenger Mike Feuer showing they have starkly different visions of the role of the city’s top prosecutor. And the statement for two competing medical marijuana initiatives survived legal challenges to appear unchanged on the May ballot.

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Photo: Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. Credit: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times

L.A. Votes: Wendy Greuel faces questions on pensions, labor support

Labor support and pensions for city workers continue to be a key issue in the Los Angeles mayoral contest, as Wendy Greuel faces fresh questions about her backing from public-employee unions and her stance on a City Council vote last year to trim retirement benefits for new workers.

Greuel has long criticized rival Eric Garcetti’s City Council vote to roll back pension benefits for new hires without engaging in collective bargaining with city worker unions. Recent statements that she would push to reopen talks with labor over the decision have raised concerns among some of Greuel’s pro-business backers. The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday called on Greuel, the city controller, to appear personally to explain her position.

Also on Tuesday, Greuel accepted the endorsement of the 600,00-member county Federation of Labor, a union umbrella group that fought the pension changes. The controller also backed off an earlier suggestion that she wanted a new round of negotiations over the pension cuts, saying Tuesday she simply wants to meet with labor leaders to discuss ways of avoiding a lawsuit over the matter.

FULL COVERAGE: L.A.'s race for mayor

Columnist Steve Lopez talked to voters in the San Fernando Valley who say Greuel’s labor backing is costing her support in the key, voter-rich region.

Meanwhile, Garcetti and Greuel continued to rack up new endorsements, with Garcetti earning the support of council members Paul Koretz and Paul Krekorian, and Greuel picking up the backing of Los Angeles Unified School District Board President Monica Garcia and newly elected Los Angeles Community College Trustee Mike Eng.

Garcia, who won reelection to the board this month, faces a new challenge as a majority of her board colleagues voted to limit the number of consecutive years a board member can serve as president.

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The first debate of the runoff occurs Wednesday night -- in the city attorney race. Incumbent Carmen Trutanich will face off with Mike Feuer at a downtown meeting hosted by the Italian American Lawyers Assn. and the Metropolitan News-Enterprise. Feuer on Tuesday also picked up the endorsement of the county Federation of Labor.

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L.A. Votes: Wendy Greuel faces questions on pensions, labor support   

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-- Seema Mehta

Comments, questions or tips on city elections? Tweet me at @LATSeema

Photo: Los Angeles mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel speaks to media March 6. Credit: Nick Ut / Associated Press

L.A. business group wants answers from Greuel on pensions

A Los Angeles business group that endorsed mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel has called on her to appear personally to explain statements she made about pensions -- and about reopening talks with City Hall labor unions over reductions in retirement benefits.

Greuel, the city controller, has been attacking opponent Eric Garcetti for weeks over his City Council vote to roll back retirement benefits for new hires, saying he and his colleagues failed to properly negotiate those changes. She went further Friday, telling The Times that she wants to meet with labor leaders to discuss the reduction in benefits “to make sure we get that pension reform that they agree with."

Those remarks alarmed Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce President Gary Toebben, who said his organization supported the council's decision to cut pension benefits for newly hired civilian city workers last year. Toebben said he asked Greuel to appear personally before his group to explain herself and disclosed that a Greuel campaign fundraiser scheduled for Thursday by the chamber has been canceled for now.

“We’re going to have a conversation with Wendy to clarify the pension comments,” Toebben said. “And we just didn’t have a sufficient response [from potential guests] at the moment to hold the fundraiser this Thursday. So we are not doing that.”

Greuel said Tuesday that the fundraiser had been canceled because potential guests had not been given enough advance notice. And she backed away from some of her previous remarks, including her push for a new round of collective bargaining with employee unions.

In an interview, Greuel said she wants simply to meet with unions to discuss ways to keep them from filing a legal challenge against the pension cuts, not open a new round of negotiations.

L.A. school board targets Garcia with term-limits vote

A narrow majority of Los Angeles Board of Education members voted Tuesday to set a limit of two consecutive years for the school board presidency. Unless the new rule is rescinded later, the decision would end the six-year run of current President Monica Garcia in July.

The board president has no greater authority than others on the seven-member panel, but runs the meetings and frequently represents the nation’s second-largest school system. Both supporters and critics have said Garcia wields an outsized influence on district policy and the use of district resources.

The school board elects its president every July to serve a one-year term.

A similar run at Garcia narrowly failed last year, but political factors outside the board room have evolved. Last year, the swing vote against term limits and to reelect Garcia came from Steve Zimmer.

Since then, however, close allies of Garcia targeted Zimmer for defeat in his recent reelection bid. Zimmer won regardless, when the teachers union and other employee groups rallied behind him. The teachers union, for its part, has been critical of Garcia. It mounted a low-budget but sharply critical campaign against her; she won reelection earlier this month.

The term-limits vote Tuesday symbolized the waning influence of L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as his own eight-year tenure in office ends. Although the mayor has no formal authority over the board, candidates he helped elect make up a board majority. Garcia is the mayor’s closest ally on the board, and yet a member of mayor’s bloc, Richard Vladovic, defected to favor the term-limits proposal.

The motion, which was approved on a 4-3 vote, was put forward by Bennett Kayser and Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte. Supporters noted that since 1985, the board president has come from the downtown area and environs a significantly disproportionate number of times.

Mike Feuer gains endorsement of L.A. County Federation of Labor

The powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor has endorsed former lawmaker Mike Feuer for Los Angeles city attorney, the Feuer campaign announced Tuesday.

In a statement released by the campaign, federation chief Maria Elena Durazo said the former Los Angeles city councilman and state assemblyman "has been a tireless advocate for working families throughout his career and a real leader when it comes to bringing jobs to our region and making L.A. safer."

The endorsement adds momentum to Feuer's May runoff challenge to incumbent City Atty. Carmen Trutanich, whom Feuer led, 44% to 30%, in the four-way municipal primary this month.

The 600,000-member federation has been a potent force at City Hall and in local elections because it can provide campaign volunteers and urge the workers it represents to vote for its preferred candidates. In some races, it has spent heavily on efforts independent of a candidates campaign, such as when it led an alliance that spent $8.5 million to help elect Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas in 2008.

Lockyer seeks legal opinion on school construction bond campaigns

California Treasurer Bill Lockyer sought a legal opinion Monday to determine if some local education officials and the municipal finance firms they employ are violating state law by campaigning to get school construction bonds passed.

In a letter to California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, Lockyer said the opinion was necessary because some arrangements between school districts and bonding firms “raise substantive questions” about whether the officials are using public money to conduct such political campaigns — an action banned by law.

In recent months, Lockyer has been examining the way schools handle bonds, in part because of alleged abuses that arose from the issuance of risky and expensive instruments know as capital appreciation bonds.

Based on figures developed by his office, The Times reported last November that 200 school and community college systems — a fifth of all districts statewide — had issued billions of dollars in such debt, often when pressed for construction money during the recession. Unlike conventional bonds that require repayments to start immediately, these allowed districts to put them off for decades. The delays, however, often result in staggeringly high compounded interest charges that make the total debt even larger.

Garcetti, Greuel pick up new support in L.A. mayoral election

The two contenders in the May 21 Los Angeles mayoral election announced their latest endorsements Monday, with City Councilman Eric Garcetti picking up support from a colleague in the San Fernando Valley and City Controller Wendy Greuel touting the backing of a community college board member.

Garcetti held a news conference in Studio City with Councilman Paul Krekorian, who heads the council’s powerful Budget and Finance Committee. Krekorian, who holds the council seat once represented by Greuel, said Garcetti would as mayor "have the courage to take the hard steps" to address the city's problems.

The announcement was not a huge surprise, given that Greuel campaigned hard three years ago for Krekorian’s opponent, former Paramount Studios executive Chris Essel, in a special council election. Essel -– like Greuel in this year’s mayoral campaign -– was heavily backed that year by the union that represents Department of Water and Power employees.

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Garcetti compared this year's mayoral election to that campaign, saying that when Krekorian ran "there were powerful forces aligned against him." "He showed that elections aren't for sale," Garcetti said.

Greuel, in turn, announced the support of Mike Eng, a newly elected board member for the Los Angeles Community College District. That wasn’t much of a surprise either since Eng is the husband of U.S. Rep. Judy Chu -– who endorsed Greuel just a few weeks ago.

L.A. Votes: Garcetti raises a pint, Greuel cheers marathoners; both court endorsements

The mayoral candidates spent the weekend pressing the flesh and raising cash. City Controller Wendy Greuel was seen at the L.A. Marathon, being interviewed alongside termed-out Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Dodgers’ owner Frank McCourt. City Councilman Eric Garcetti hoisted a Guinness while toasting Los Angeles during a St. Patrick’s Day bash at Tom Bergin’s on Fairfax.

Garcetti picked up the endorsement of former mayoral candidate Emanuel Pleitez on Saturday outside the Derby Dolls’ roller derby rink. Greuel picked up the nod of EMILY’S List, a fundraising organization devoted to electing pro-choice Democratic women. But two of the biggest endorsements remain in play -– Republican attorney Kevin James and Councilwoman Jan Perry, who effectively tied for third in the mayoral primary, and whose supporters would be a major boon to Greuel’s or Garcetti’s chances in the May 21 runoff.

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Team Garcetti is also piqued by the continued airing of an anti-Garcetti ad by a pro-Greuel independent committee that is largely supported by a union that represents many workers from the city’s Department of Water and Power. A flurry of Garcetti fundraising pleas have gone out in recent days, with subject lines such as “Fed up,” “I’m tired of this,” and “Enough is enough.”

Whoever is elected mayor, the city’s next chief executive will have a new quandary to face because of billionaire Philip Anschutz’s decision not to sell Anschutz Entertainment Group and company Chief Executive Tim Leiweke’s departure from the firm: how to upgrade the city's Convention Center in case plans for developing a downtown football stadium fall apart.

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-- Seema Mehta

Comments, questions or tips on city elections? Tweet me at @LATSeema

Photo: Councilman Eric Garcetti shakes supporters' hands at an election night party on March 5. Credit:  Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images