COUNCIL POWER GRAB RIORDAN SAYS ORDINANCE WOULD SUBVERT CHARTER REFORM.

Byline: Alexa Haussler Staff Writer

In the sharpest clash yet over the new City Charter, Mayor Richard Riordan's office accused the City Council on Thursday of subverting the will of voters by trying to strip the mayor of lobbying responsibilities.

With millions of dollars in state and federal funding at stake, the council is set to consider an ordinance today that would restore lobbying responsibility to Chief Legislative Analyst Ron Deaton, titularly the council's top bureaucrat but widely regarded as the most powerful figure in City Hall.

The new voter-approved charter that goes into effect July 1 stripped Deaton of his state and federal lobbying role, but the proposed ordinance - which officials say he crafted - would restore it and expand his power in some ways.

An outside legal analysis commissioned by Riordan and released Thursday found the proposal is ``constitutionally suspect'' and undermines the new charter's goal of making the council primarily a legislative body and giving the mayor expanded authority to manage city departments.

Rob Glushon, a member of the city's elected Charter Reform Commission, said the proposal was a power grab since the reform commission felt it was important that the mayor be the city's main representative at the state and federal levels.

``The council needs to listen to the will of the voters,'' Glushon said. ``When someone in Sacramento or Washington wants to hear from the city of Los Angeles, they look to the Mayor's Office.

``It's politics. The mayor wants more authority and the council doesn't want to give any mayor more authority.''

Deputy Mayor Kelly Martin said the council was attempting to usurp the mayor's authority to preserve Deaton's power.

``Hundreds of millions of dollars each year come to us from the state and federal government,'' Martin said. ``Making sure we get our fair share is very crucial.''

Deaton was out of town and unavailable to comment.

In a six-page analysis, attorney Dale E. Bonner of Hogan & Hartson said that instead of developing a broad set of state and federal legislative policies annually, the proposal would include other local government bodies as part of the council's authority.

It also states that Deaton, the council's top adviser, would be empowered to shape guidelines for the council to take positions on almost any issue.

``The Charter . . . prohibits the Council having any administrative control over the various functions of City government,'' Bonner wrote. ``The ordinance is constitutionally suspect and would be subject to legal challenge if adopted by the Council and signed into law in its present form.''

Bonner's opinion states that the ordinance expands Deaton's role in intergovernmental relations and violates the mandatory separation of powers mandated by the new charter.

``(The charter) vests in the Mayor the exclusive power and duty to represent the City in intergovernmental relations in accordance with city policy and supervise the City's intergovernmental relations function,'' he wrote.

The report angered some council members who sit on a charter reform committee that already approved the ordinance.

``It troubles me that the mayor went to some outside source when the legal adviser for the city is the city attorney,'' said Councilwoman Laura Chick, chairwoman of the council's Charter Implementation Committee. ``The city attorney has carefully contemplated this and advised the council during a variety of discussions.''

Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the City Attorney's Office, said the proposal is being reviewed but declined comment on the controversy.

The latest sparring match is just one in a string of tense debates between the mayor and council over how to implement the new City Charter, approved by voters to try to make local government more responsive and efficient.

Under the current system, Deaton represents the city in Sacramento and Washington on a regular basis. Under the new charter, the mayor would become the city's chief representative when lobbying for state and federal funds for the city.

Councilman Mike Feuer, a member of the Charter Implementation Committee, said he will support postponing the vote on the matter until further review by the city attorney.

``I want to be sure that we have all the facts before us,'' Feuer said.

Chick said, however, that she is comfortable with the ordinance as it stands and that the city attorney already reviewed it.

``You can ask three or four different people, if you look around for them, and get three or four different opinions on what the charter says. That's why we rely on our city attorney,'' Chick said.

George Kieffer, chairman of the city's appointed Charter Reform Commission, said the ordinance is ``in a very gray area'' and that he plans to review the issue.

``This may or may not be good policy, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's inconsistent with the charter,'' he said.