BOUND FOR NEW YORK 30 YEARS LATER, WACHS MOVES ON.

Byline: Rick Orlov Staff Writer

After more than 30 years in office, Los Angeles Councilman Joel Wachs said farewell Friday to City Hall.

At a ceremony during which he was saluted by his colleagues and constituents, Wachs fought back tears as he urged the council to take to heart the lessons he had learned from the time he was elected.

``Never accept the status quo,'' Wachs said. ``Things can always be better. Follow your heart. Make public service something worthwhile.''

Mayor James Hahn attended the ceremony, at which he said Wachs served as an example of public service and would serve as the city's envoy to New York, where Wachs is taking over as director of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

It was a bittersweet departure for Wachs, who said there was still more to do here, but that the East Coast opportunity was too great to pass up.

The 62-year-old Wachs remembered the colleagues he had served with - in particular, former council members Ernani Bernardi and Howard Finn - and recalled his arrival in 1971 as a brash upstart who knocked off incumbent Councilman James B. Potter in 1971 from a Studio City district. Anne Finn, widow of the late councilman, was among the well-wishers at City Hall on Friday.

Now, as a maverick, Wachs prides himself as a watchdog who judges himself as much by the things he opposes as by those he supports.

``The issues then were the same as today,'' Wachs said. ``It was an issue of integrity.''

Wachs ran his first campaign with a $24,000 budget - $10,000 of which was borrowed from his father - and a handful of volunteers. His father rallied votes from shoppers in supermarket parking lots while his mother ran the campaign headquarters.

No scandals

Over the years, Wachs has found himself both on the inside and the outside of the Los Angeles political establishment, but never subject to personal political scandal.

He has served as either council president or president pro tem for more than 10 years. He also quit as pro tem in a dispute with his colleagues over charter reform.

He has run for mayor three times - the first only 18 months after his election to the council and his last this year, when he finished a disappointing fourth.

Wachs has used his post to argue forcefully on behalf of older people, rent control, environmental issues, anti-discrimination measures and an arts fee. He fought the spraying of malathion, city funding for projects such as Staples Center and the way the city negotiates with workers.

``When I first got here, I would marvel at him,'' said Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who is known among her colleagues for poems she writes during the often lengthy meetings.

``In fact, the first poem I wrote was about Joel. It went: 'Joel is the very best I know at letting indignation flow.' He might be one of the smartest and most effective council members when he's engaged in an issue.''

Wachs, a Pennsylvania native whose family moved to Los Angeles when he was a child, has had a lifelong interest in politics. He was University of California, Los Angeles, student body president in 1960 - the year John F. Kennedy was elected president.

The next decade would see him earn a law degree from Harvard, study tax law at New York University and return to Los Angeles to open a tax law practice - only to see the city erupt in flames in the 1965 Watts Riot and, later, tear itself apart with anti-war protests.

``I really hadn't thought about running for City Council until some friends approached me,'' Wachs said. ``I had been a lawyer for about five years and was looking for something in public service to do. I didn't even know where City Hall was at the time.''

From the start, Wachs went his own way at City Hall.

His 1973 race for mayor - which he himself would later describe as overreaching - saw him lose to a colleague, Tom Bradley, who would go on to serve for 20 years as the city's chief executive.

``I ran to get better-known,'' Wachs said. ``I didn't have anything to run a decent campaign. But I saw it as a forum to deal with some citywide issues.''

A liberal Republican at the time, Wachs was never easy to pigeonhole - either by supporters or opponents. He changed his political party designation to independent when he ran for mayor in 1993.

``He plays it both ways,'' Councilman Nate Holden said. ``Because of where he sits on the council (members are seated alphabetically), he could see how the votes were going and then decide which side he wanted to be on. Joel Wachs always voted for what was in Joel Wachs' best interests.''

Wachs always has had an eye for headlines and the issues of the day.

During the Watergate scandal, he was in the forefront with Bernardi and then-City Attorney Burt Pines to push campaign reform. Los Angeles long has had one of the most restrictive campaign measures in the country even as it is being tested with recent voter-approved reforms.

While he opposed Proposition 13 in 1978, Wachs later would become a taxpayer advocate, even as he joined with outraged renters after its passage to push through a rent control law that became a model for other cities and has stood up against court challenges when others failed.

At the same time, he mended fences with Howard Jarvis, the father of Proposition 13, and his backers.

``It's probably an understatement to say we didn't agree with him on everything,'' said Joel Fox, former executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. ``But we agreed with him more than we didn't. He's a maverick and I tend to have sympathy for mavericks.''

This year, the Jarvis organization endorsed Wachs for mayor.

Personal glimpse

Wachs' race for mayor this year also resulted in him offering a rare glimpse into his private life when he announced he was gay.

In typical Wachs fashion, the announcement came during a cable television interview, a statement he immediately downplayed.

``I don't think it came as a surprise to anyone,'' said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who sat next to Wachs for most of their time together on the City Council. ``And I don't think it made a difference to anyone about how they felt about Joel or their respect for him.''

If there has been a consistent criticism of Wachs in recent years, it is that he often disappears between major issues or campaigns.

``Sometimes, it just seems he gets bored with it all,'' Galanter said. ``You wonder where he's been, and then he'll pop up with something.''

But when he was involved in an issue, Yaroslavsky said, Wachs was formidable.

``Joel Wachs is as smart an individual as I've worked with on the City Council,'' Yaroslavsky said. ``When he was focused and engaged, there was no one more thorough. And if you look at his career, he has dealt with some landmark issues. But he didn't try to get involved in everything. He would pick and choose his issues.''

``I tried to deal with the problems at the time,'' Wachs said. ``You can't do everything. You have to decide where you can be most effective.''

Wachs always has had a populist streak in his politics, a trait that began to truly emerge in 1993 in his second run for mayor in a race eventually won by Richard Riordan.

During that campaign, Wachs first broached the idea of creating neighborhood councils and the need to open up city government because he could feel the discontent among voters that would eventually lead to the secession movements in the San Fernando Valley and elsewhere. He later would be haunted by that when he was questioned about why he did not move ahead to create such councils in his own district.

At first, Wachs was one of Riordan's biggest boosters in City Hall, carrying to the council many of the proposals from the new mayor and even lending some of his staff to help in those early days.

However, they would later have a falling out over a variety of issues - chief among them, an effort by Riordan to get public funding for Staples Center.

Holden had first raised the issue, but it was Wachs who took it over to block the initial plans.

John Semcken, a senior vice president at Majestic Realty Co. who was one of the forces behind the project, said he found Wachs formidable.

``On a personal level, he can be very charming and he is smart,'' Semcken said. ``He knows what makes government tick. What I'm not sure of is if he cut the best deal for the people of the city. It was the best deal for Joel Wachs at the time.''

Carol Schatz, president of the Central City Association, said it was an example of how Wachs cannot be categorized.

``He's just very independent,'' Schatz said. ``He was never part of the old boys network. You can go to him with an issue and if you can convince him, he's there with you. Joel Wachs is not moved as much by ideology but what he thinks is in the best interest of the city.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Anne Finn, widow of former Councilman Howard Finn, says farewell to Councilman Joel Wachs on Friday.

(2) Soon-to-be-former City Councilman Joel Wachs' eyes well up with tears as he talks about leaving the city he's served for the past 30 years. He'll resettle in New York, where he'll head the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.John Lazar/Staff Photographer

John Lazar/Staff Photographer