AFTER ONE YEAR, ANTONIO'S ALL SMILES.

Byline: MARIEL GARZA

SATURDAY marks the one-year anniversary of the day Antonio Villaraigosa became mayor of Los Angeles. But, for some reason, it feels like a lot longer.

It might have something to do with Villaraigosa's relentless pace of public appearances that began the day after his victory over James Hahn in the June 2005 runoff election.

Many mayoral observers figured that the mayor's ``Thank You, L.A.'' tour would end after a few weeks, or a month, or two months, or for sure after six months. It hasn't yet, and it doesn't look like it will be waning anytime soon. Probably not until he wins his next political race for governor, or senator, or president.

But at this moment, everyone's going to be cataloguing Villaraigosa's accomplishments and failures, victories and gaffes.

School takeover? Mmmm, not quite. Getting rid of some deadwood heading departments in City Hall? Check. Etc., etc.

Like anyone on the upward trajectory in politics, the mayor's got both pluses and minuses, but slightly more of the former, next to his name. He has his fans, he has his foes and he has lots of constituents who don't really care so long as he keeps turning up on ``The George Lopez Show.''

If there is one really astonishing accomplishment of his first year in office, it is this: Angelenos who probably couldn't name the last two mayors, and maybe didn't realize they even had one, now know that an energetic man named Antonio (``Villaraigosa'' is a stumper for perhaps half the city) with that distinctive full-dental-plate grin is in the house. Getty House, that is.

That's what near-constant public exposure on television, in national magazines, in newspapers near and far will get you.

There's Antonio stomping around the halls of the Capitol in Sacramento, relentlessly hounding legislators until they write a law giving him a hostile partial takeover of the school district (they did).

There he is pouring coffee with athlete-turned-South L.A.-developer Magic Johnson and gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides at a photo op at Starbucks on Crenshaw Boulevard.

Now he's standing up for the people at an MTA meeting; now he's making a behind-the-scenes deal to end the South L.A. urban farm crisis; now he's inspiring this year's graduates with commencement speeches at UCLA, USC and Loyola Marymount; now he's palling around with Mexican President Vicente Fox. It's tiring just reading his daily schedule.

All the while, the grin never goes away.

Thursday, June 15, was a typical day for Villaraigosa. He had four public appearances beginning at 9 a.m. with a meeting of the MTA's Executive Management and Audit Committee, of which he is chair, and ending well after 8 p.m. in East L.A. giving another speech.

After the MTA, it was off to South Los Angeles for the grand opening celebration of View Park Preparatory Accelerated Charter School, where the assembled student body, parents, teachers and school supporters waited in the hot midday sun.

Villaraigosa arrived in his black SUV at 11:15 a.m. -- a quarter of an hour late -- and the energy instantly changed on campus from anxious expectation to quiet excitement. Seated with several other politicians, including former Mayor Richard Riordan, Villaraigosa is the main attraction. He gives an extemporaneous keynote speech praising the school, the city and civil rights, all while managing to get in a dig at the Los Angeles Unified School District. < Thirty minutes into the speeches, the scores of teens and tweens in the audience should be squirming and giggling. The din of their existence should start to overtake what's happening onstage. But it did not. And this is why:

After making the obligatory thanks and acknowledgments, Villaraigosa looks over the head of the community and school dignitaries sitting in the shaded rows directly off the podium out to the unshaded student rows. He speaks directly to the students. ``When I look in your eyes,'' he says, ``I see a doctor. I see a lawyer. When I look in your eyes, I see a teacher. I see someone who can be anything, go anywhere -- who can touch a star and follow their dreams.'' And they listen.

It's not mysterious or mystical, what Villaraigosa does to continue to win over the citizens even as City Hall operates pretty much as it always has. It's not because he's smarter than everyone else. He's not shrewder or more conniving. He's not even louder or taller. It's a simple formula of personal connection and genuine, if momentary, interest in every person he talks to. He's speaking from what seems like his true heart, eschewing the teleprompters.

If Villaraigosa does nothing else in his first term, he will have at least given L.A. a mayor as colorful, as flashy and as able to play in the national big leagues as the City of Angels itself aspires to be. And that's something.

The gatekeeper

THERE'S one person who knows for certain -- and in quantifiable terms -- just how popular Antonio Villaraigosa is.

That's Peter Brown, the mayor's director of scheduling. Brown and his staff of four are responsible for creating the script and choreography of the mayor's long work days. Virtually every moment Villaraigosa is awake is scheduled -- 16 hours on weekdays, and 10 hours on weekends. Sometimes the mayor gets a day off, but not often.

``It's rare. He's really on the go. He's the kinda guy, he won't stop,'' Brown said. ``I try to block off time every so often just to slow him down.''

Brown jokes that the right number of elements in the mayor's day is ``however much we can stuff in.'' In truth, he strives to puzzle together each day into the perfect balance of public events, meetings, briefings, politics -- all the while being cognizant that Villaraigosa needs to spend equal amounts of time in every region of the city.

The two do this while managing an almost constant onslaught of event and meeting requests -- about 3,000 a month -- from staff, nonprofit organizations, other politicians, dignitaries, heads of state, school kids, the occasional crazy person, business leaders and Hollywood promoters.

Obviously, it's not possible for the mayor to attend 3,000 events per month, though it may feel like he does to those in his entourage. So the requests are sorted into the yesses and the ``regrets.''

``We do look at every single request that comes in. There's no priority over how the requests are looked at,'' Brown said. ``Whether it's school kids or Magic Johnson, it doesn't matter.''

In this small room in the mayor's third-floor office, the moments when the phone -- PDA or cell or office -- isn't ringing are few.

Although Brown has worked in politics since 1991 -- for the likes of Jerry Brown, Tom Hayden and Bill Clinton -- he says, in all seriousness, that his stint as a child-abuse investigator for Los Angeles County best prepared him for his current job. Like field investigations, each day dawns with potential dangers and crises lurking behind every door.

``It's an assessment every day,'' Brown said, ``prioritizing what's important and fitting that into a primary goal.''

-- Mariel Garza

CAPTION(S):

drawing, photo, box

Drawing:

(color) no caption (Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa)

Photo:

(color) Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, his wife Corina, Mexican President Vicente Fox and his wife Marta Sahagun, right, stop for a photo op at the Getty Center before delivering remarks May 26.

David McNew/Getty Images

Box:

The gatekeeper (see text)