Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced a sweeping series of
nominations to city advisory panels last week, tapping a diverse
group of the city’s most accomplished community leaders
including a UCLA pediatrics professor and a high-ranking member of
the university’s labor center.
The 42 nominees ““ if confirmed by city council ““
will serve on boards focusing on an assortment of issues important
to residents, from affordable housing to transportation.
“Their expertise and commitment to public service will
serve our city well,” Villaraigosa said in a statement.
“These leaders represent the diversity of America’s
most diverse city.”
Consistent with his repeated campaign promise to represent all
Angelinos, the newly elected Latino mayor nominated more women than
men and a medley of the city’s larger racial groups.
Nearly two-thirds of the mayor’s nominees are Latinos,
blacks, Asians or Pacific Islanders.
Though the mayor’s picks thus far have been diverse
racially, nearly one of every three hail from just two affluent
city council districts, including West Los Angeles, Westchester and
communities adjacent to Beverly Hills. Poorer areas such as South
Los Angeles and parts of the San Fernando Valley have contributed
the fewest nominees, according to an analysis by Copley News
Service.
The advisory board picks come as Villaraigosa endures some of
the most pointed critiques he has taken during his short time in
office.
The newly elected mayor drew the ire of many after refusing to
support a bill that would give him control of the city’s
failing school system, a role he frequently promised he would lobby
for during his campaign.
Villaraigosa has, however, left the door open, saying the
legislation is premature and in need of more local support.
Riding a wave of national publicity after his landslide victory
in May, Villaraigosa has spent much of his first weeks in office
drawing attention to the city’s need for more effective
public transportation, a goal that sent the mayor to Washington
recently to lobby for funds.
Villaraigosa, a UCLA alum, looked toward Westwood for some of
his advisory panel picks.
Included among the mayor’s nominations were Mark Schuster,
a pediatrics and public health professor, to the commission for
children, youth and their families; Mary Nichols, director of the
UCLA Institute of the Environment, to the Department of Water and
Power commission; and Victor Narro, project director at the
Downtown Labor Center, to the police permit review panel.
“One of the best ways to engage in public service is to
get involved with city panels and commissions,” Narro said.
“It’s a great way to serve the city.”
Schuster and Narro said commission posts would not interfere
with their work at UCLA, as their panels meet only once a month.
Nichols could not be reached for comment Sunday.
The Westwood nods come a month after the mayor picked Larry
Frank, staff director at the university’s labor center, as
deputy mayor for neighborhood and community services.
Narro, whose panel reviews policy relating to special event and
police permits, said he looks forward to finding a balance between
the first amendment rights of special events organizers and the
toll their demonstrations take on police and traffic.
The give-and-take between the two has taken its spot in the
limelight recently, as a slew of antiwar activists have requested
permits to organize large protests against the war in Iraq.
“It’s kind of a balancing act,” Narro said,
adding that he’d likely advise little change to current
policy, which he says respects free speech rights.
After a judge struck down the former Los Angeles special permit
policy in 2000 for being too restrictive, the city has followed a
temporary policy hashed out between civil rights activists and city
hall.
Helping to create a permanent permit policy is a priority for
this commission, Narro said.
Schuster, a pediatrician with a doctorate in public policy, was
picked to join a board focusing on policy affecting children and
their families including healthcare and education.
The pediatrician said quality healthcare for children in Los
Angeles is lacking.
“Many children don’t have insurance and if they do,
their parents aren’t always able to get them to a
doctor,” Schuster said. “A lot of parents wind up
having trouble getting their children to a doctor either because
they’re too far away or they have trouble finding doctors who
speak the language their parents speak.”
Schuster hopes to expand healthcare to cover all Angeleno
children.
Villaraigosa also nominated Marianne Parker Brown ““ who
recently retired from her post as program director at the UCLA
Center for Occupational and Environmental Health ““ to the
West Los Angeles Area Planning Commission.
The mayor has only filled a quarter of panel openings, leaving
240 spots still open.