Hahn taps Contreras for board to gain union support. (Politics).

IT's hardly unusual for a mayor of Los Angeles to make mid-term adjustments of some of his city commissioners. But with his most recent shakeup, Mayor James Hahn took advantage of two commission openings to make a play for union support.

On March 13, nine days after impressive union victories in local elections, Hahn announced the reappointment of L.A. County Federation of Labor chief Miguel Contreras to the Los Angeles World Airports Board of Commissioners. Contreras had served on the Airport Commission under Mayor Richard Riordan, but Hahn chose not to reappoint him after Contreras backed his opponent, Antonio Villaraigosa, for mayor.

Now, though, Hahn needs to reach out to the unions. Villaraigosa comes onto the City Council in June, possibly along with another union-backed candidate, Martin Ludlow (who is in the runoff for the 10th District Council seat to replace termed-out Nate Holden). What's more, Hahn needs all the support he can get from the unions for his massive $10 billion proposed overhaul of Los Angeles International Airport. Having Contreras on the Airport Commission would help cement that crucial union support.

But Hahn would not have been able to find a place for Contreras had Airport Commissioner Leland Wong not gone to the mayor a few months ago saying he wanted to move to another commission. Wong, a Hahn loyalist, was serving his third stint on the commission (he had served under both mayors Riordan and Tom Bradley) and said last week he was "getting a little tired of airport issues."

Privately, some city watchers said that Wong was not getting along with Airport Commission President Ted Stein and wanted out. Wong denied this last week, saying he and Stein disagreed about some things but remained loyal friends.

Knowing that Wong wanted out of the Airport Commission still left one problem for Hahn: where to put him. According to City Hall lobbyist Richard Lichtenstein, Wong, with his connections to the Asian business community, was "too valuable to remove completely."

That's where another fortuitous commission opening came into play. Two months ago, Los Angeles Department of Water & Power Commissioner Mary Leslie approached Hahn about leaving her post, saying it was too time consuming for her and not exactly in her line of interest. Leslie, who is executive director of the Los Angeles Business Council, an advocacy group, and also serves on the Mayor's Getty House Trust Commission, wanted to spend more time with her two young children, according to her husband, Alan Arkatov. (Leslie could not be reached.) Hahn offered Leslie a post on the Housing Commission, but she declined.

Leslie's departure gave Wong a place to land. More than that, it also allows him to continue to use his Asian business contacts: the DWP will be working closely with Asian shipping companies to implement a pollution-reducing measure to have ships in port connect to electric power supplies instead of running their polluting engines.

Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached by phone at [phone], ext 227, or by email at [e-mail].