THE HUTCHINSON REPORT: Raman will face same challenges as Bass as mayor

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Contributing Columnist

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman was blunt in a recent interview about what she saw as by far the number one problem in Los Angeles.

“One of the biggest issues I hear about on the campaign trail is homelessness and the fact that people have lost trust and faith in City Hall’s capacity to address this issue,” she said.

The operative words were “lost trust and faith.” Raman is banking that the polls that show deep dissatisfaction among a wide swath of voters about Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ performance will power her to the top spot in City Hall, ousting Bass.

The polls and countless surveys of voter opinion do show that a lot of people think Bass’ performance is sorely lacking. The list of gripes about her is endless on everything from the supposed mishandling of the Palisades fire to the chronic homeless plague.

In other words, the sentiment that is “anybody but Bass” is so strong that in one of the rare instances of incumbency, an incumbent is in real danger of losing reelection in L.A.

The critical issue for both is handling the homeless crisis. Raman has taken the classic progressive liberal stance on the issue. She would pour vast sums into affordable housing and an array of support services from mental health treatment to job training and placement to help the homeless.

Their respective pitches and somewhat different approaches to this and other city problems worked well in convincing enough voters to back them in the primary. But their fairly impressive showing was not a full-throated belief by many who voted for them that Raman would get the City Hall job done better than Bass.

In fact, it was as much a protest vote rather than belief that she had the answers to the crucial issues that bedevil Los Angeles. It could be nothing else since Raman could not win any name recognition contest among voters when she originally announced her candidacy

There’s more. Many L.A. voters are absolutely convinced that L.A. is a ‘broken” and “failed” city. They say the city is listing badly. City Hall is dysfunctional. Homelessness, public safety, fiscal waste and mismanagement and a bloated, steadily rising and costly-to-taxpayers budget are chronic problems that seemingly continue to pile up.

There are a lot more voters who, though staunch Democrats, have no open or hidden ideological agenda. Yet, they are angered and frustrated, too.

They are fed up with the malaise, the fog of government and the self-serving that has often enveloped the mayor’s office. The taint of corruption, cronyism, manipulation, scheming and secrecy has been an ugly trademark of the City Council. They have no hope that the City Council will reform itself.

Now along comes Raman, the Democratic socialist. One couldn’t make up a more glaring contrast in wanna-be mayors than her and Bass if they had 100 years to try. Yet, to more than a few voters, Raman seems like the perennial breath of fresh air.

Raman seems like the classic political outlier. She was once a one-time firm ally and supporter of Mayor Bass then broke with her.

The crucial issue, as always, will be which of the two can deliver on the deluge of promises that they are making to solve the city’s mountainous problems.

The mayoral winner must craft and push the City Council to enact a solid land-use plan to rein in upscale development. That means taking checkbook politics out of the development process while ensuring the building and subsidizing more affordable housing.

Next is getting a handle on L.A.’s rampant sprawl that has turned freeways and streets into stalled parking lots for hours on end. The answer is the continued expansion of light transit, busways, traffic signal coordination and synchronization, traffic flow monitors at major thoroughfares and carpooling incentives.

Then there is the always thorny issue of misconduct by Los Angeles police officers. How to manage it is perennially the issue that mayors walk a tightrope on. Raman has strongly hinted that she will not renew Police Chief Jim McDonnell’s five-year tenure as chief. Bass in turn has voiced deep concern about the rash of shootings by police.

The equally large issue and problem both face is how to tackle the taint of corruption, cronyism, manipulation, scheming and secrecy that has been an ugly trademark of the L.A. City Council. That must end. And the mayoral winner must not trust the City Council to reform itself.

That means clamping down on special interest deal-making in and outside City Hall, trimming a bloated city bureaucracy and sneaky tax increases that smack of old-fashioned political pork barreling.

Put bluntly, there must be no “for sale” sign on City Hall. A major key to ensuring the smooth, effective, resident-friendly operation of city government is tough, hard monitoring oversight and review, and accountability of city agencies.

The mayoral winner must hit the ground running. That requires political smarts, connections, ability and expertise to grapple effectively with L.A.’s colossal woes. Bass, despite the mountains of criticisms of her handling of some aspects of city government, has shown that she has the know-how and savvy to win office. Raman’s task is to prove she can do the same.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book is “The Garbaging of America” (Amazon ebook and Middle Passage Press).