“If City Hall’S Walls Could Talk”: Strange and Funny Stories from Inside Los Angeles City Hall

By Greig Smith

The author was a participant, and elected official for over 32
years, in the government of the City of Los Angeles. This book
is an effort to commemorate some of the truly intriguing,
funny, and down right goofy stories that have helped the
City of Angels gain its reputation as an eclectic city often
called LA-LA LAND. Stories from recent years as well as
some wild, funny, and fascinating stories from its history. It
was Smiths desire to document a collection of short stories
that are not intended to be a literary giant, but rather a very
enjoyable read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 16, 2010
• ISBN: 9781456807047

Greig Smith

Greig Smith is a graduate of USC with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. Greig served on the staff’s of a US Senator and Vice President before getting married and entering the private sector where he was owner/operator of his own company for eight years. In 1979 he ran campaign operations for his friend Hal Bernson who was elected to the LA City Council. Greig sold his business and returned to government as Bernson’s Chief of Staff where he served for 24 years. In April 2003 Greig was elected to the City Council where he served until retirement in 2011.

Book preview

Copyright © 2010 by Greig Smith.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2010916317

ISBN: Hardcover    978-1-4568-0703-0

ISBN: Softcover      978-1-4568-0702-3

ISBN: Ebook           978-1-4568-0704-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

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DEDICATION

For 37 years my wife, Christine, has inspired me onward. Throughout this project she gave encouragement and advice. But her biggest contribution came as a researcher.

Chris researched every source to find information about Mayor Marchessault. There was little information about him to be found. Through her diligence comes detailed information about our second Mayor—information about his background, contribution to our city, life works, and how his life tragically ended—information that previously did not exist. Our City Archivist said, this story fills in a lot of blanks. This book is dedicated to my darling wife Christine.

CONTENTS

FORWARD

SECTION 1

Historical Reference

SECTION 2

Modern Times and Humor

SECTION 3

The most politically intriguing moment in City Council history.

SECTION 4

Say What???

Bibliography

PICTURES

FORWARD

As an inhabitant of Los Angeles and participant in Los Angeles City government for thirty-two years, I have seen a lot of interesting and funny things happen. A lot of characters have come and gone through the building. One particular individual caught my attention many years ago—that being none other than Councilman Gilbert Lindsay, unofficially known to all as the Emperor of the Great 9th District.

Gil was a member of the City Council for twenty-nine years before his death, while in office, in 1990. I personally saw and heard the Councilman in action many times during my stay in chambers, and there are many more stories—some urban legends no doubt—about his sense of humor and political wisdom. After his death I began to mention to people around the building that we should put into writing some of the hilarious things he said and did, for posterity purposes if for no other reason. While everyone I talked to, including some of his former staff members, loved the idea, nobody would take ownership of the project.

As I began to memorialize Lindsayisms for my own use, I also began to collect other tidbits about other elected officials and political stories that needed to be recorded for historical purposes as well. And the more I looked, the more I found. Not just interesting and intriguing events that happened during my time in the building, but also a lot of really interesting, entertaining, and yes funny stories that happened long before any of us were born.

During a trip to Washington, D.C., my wife and I spent some free time at the National Archives. I uncovered an original edition of a book that was written in 1881 about life in the City of Los Angeles between the years 1853-1880. This book, titled Reminiscence of a Ranger, Early times in Southern California by Horace Bell, is a first person recollection of major events that took place during the founding years of the City of the Angels. It is a magnificent collection of frontier Los Angeles stories. Horace Bell was part of a volunteer lawman group called the Rangers. The Rangers were essentially the first version of the LAPD, but all volunteers. I was fortunate enough to find a reprint of the book and many passages are quoted here for your enjoyment.

Horace Bell also wrote a second book—a sequel to Reminiscence of a Ranger, Early times in Southern California. Bell’s second book entitled On the Old West Coast. Both books have been reprinted are available through book outlets if you search hard enough.

A third publication, which is only available at the National Archives in Washington, is titled Sixty years in Southern California 1853-1918 by Harris Newmark. In his writings Newmark substantiates much of Bell’s work, without the humor. The Bell book is a history written in a tongue-in-cheek format, which is very humorous while the Newmark book is a factual and historical review of things and people of importance in the long history of this quirky town many lovingly call The City of the Angels.

These three books and the collection of the Los Angeles Star Newspaper in the Los Angeles Public Library main branch formed the majority of information on old Los Angeles. I highly recommended them for history buffs who want to pursue the stories of old Los Angeles.

I want to give very special thanks to a number of people who have been so helpful in the documentation of these events. I know that everyone I interviewed and worked with on this project had as much fun relating his or her stories as I did putting it all to paper. They include Mayor Richard Riordan, former Councilmembers: Hal Bernson, David Cunningham, Mike Hernandez, Cindy Miscikowski (who also served as Chief Deputy to Councilman Braude), Arthur Snyder, Joel Wachs, and current members Eric Garcetti, Tom LaBonge and Bernard Parks.

Also assisting me were a number of key staff members: Jay Jones, City Archivist and his staff, Avak Keothahian (assistant CLA), Raymond Kwan (CLA Office and Photographer), Gerry Miller (CLA), Jim Seeley (City Lobbyist in Washington, D.C.) Ken Spiker Sr., and the University of Southern California Digital Library.

And a lot of good friends and former staff members were significant contributors: Steve Afriat (Deputy to Councilman Yaroslavsky), Wayne Avrashow (Deputy to Councilmembers Yaroslavsky and Ronka), Arnie Berghoff (former CLA staff), Ron Butcher (city hall photographer), Michael Carey (retired City Clerk), Joe Cerrell (Cerrell & Associates), Ron Deaton (retired Chief Legislative Analyst), Bill Fujioka (former City Administrative Officer), Johanne Gaudioso (retired CLA staff), Lisa Gritzner (former Chief Deputy to Councilmember Miscikowski), Michael Keeley (Deputy Mayor to Riordan), Darlene Kuba (former Deputy to Councilman Lindsay and Howard Sunkin, (Cerrell & Associates and VP Los Angeles Dodgers).

But a very special thanks must go to my great friends Ted and Ellen Stein (both served as commissioners), Hal and Robyn Bernson, and Les and Sharon Tso, who assisted me with fact checking, proof reading and content input.

Turn of the century LA City Hall on Broadway and First

new image 1- old CH.jpg

SECTION 1

Historical Reference

Unlike most big American cities, Los Angeles is not mired in its past. In fact one criticism that Los Angeles has had for decades is that it has no history. Angeleno’s revel in their ability to change, move on, and re-invent itself on a regular basis. Some of this inventiveness comes from necessity, be it from major flooding of the LA River which washed away large portions of the original city, riots, earthquakes or fires which have regularly caused significant damage to our City. Los Angeles has always picked itself up and started over again.

With the efforts of new historical and conservation organizations, that is changing. The City Council has even established an Office of Historic Preservation within the Planning Department. Los Angeles now wants to protect and commemorate its past.

During research conducted for this book the intent was to concentrate on funny and intriguing things that have happened in the City Council. What I found were a number of additional historical stories, some funny, others quite tragic, and some just plain interesting that included the City Council, the Mayor, and an assortment of community leaders. I am very pleased to re-tell some of those stories here for the purpose of keeping these historical records alive. Most of these stories come from first hand accounts taken from the few written records that have been preserved.

The following stories are from the annals of Los Angeles history.

Elections in the wild, wild, west

In a very rare document titled "Reminiscences of a Ranger" by Horace Bell there is a passage about the elections of 1853. It was quite unbelievable, but also extremely entertaining. Additionally the story was later confirmed in a writings by Harris Newmark, a resident of Los Angeles who wrote in his memoirs Sixty years in Southern California 1853-1918 similar notations about the wild and unregulated elections.

Newmark reports that there were no official ballots printed. Hence candidates had their own ballots printed and distributed with their name, and associates names on it. Likewise since Mexican nationals, a larger segment of the city then than even now, could not vote nor could Indians, the voting population