SPECIAL APPEARANCE SET FOR EX-CITY OFFICIAL CEREMONY: RON DEATON WILL BE HONORED FOR 42 YEARS OF SERVICE TO LOS ANGELES.

Byline: Rick Orlov

Staff Writer

When he returns this week to City Hall, Ron Deaton will be honored for 42 years of service as one of the most powerful figures in Los Angeles history.

But it's likely his thoughts during the special ceremony will shift to a man with a seat reserved in the front row, someone who Deaton said he only vaguely remembers but who saved his life.

Dr. Reinaldo Sanchez-Grillo, a Costa Rican cardiologist, tended to Deaton for nearly two months last year after Deaton suffered a massive heart attack while on vacation.

"I still have no memory of the trip to Costa Rica or anything that happened," Deaton said in an interview Saturday. "I do remember a few days in the hospital, but what I remember is waking up in a hospital here and being told what happened."

For Deaton -- who had long excelled at making sense of disparate facts in City Hall politics and policies and developing courses of action -- the loss of memory was more than disconcerting. And it was a wake-up call telling him it was time to change his life.

"I had doctors tell me I could go back to work, but I never felt I would be able to put in the hours or act the way I used to, by bringing together all the different sides at a moment's notice," Deaton said. "It was time to go."

When he left city service last year, Deaton was heading the Department of Water and Power, the agency at which in 1965 he had begun his long affiliation with L.A.

When he began, Sam Yorty was mayor and Deaton -- who had moved to the City Administrative Office to work on the budget under C. Erwin Piper -- recalls getting in arguments with Yorty's political aides who warned him that his proposals and ideas had better be correct.

"What I learned from Piper was to be straightforward and honest and I suppose that's what I did my whole career," Deaton said. "When I became (chief legislative analyst) I would tell new members that I would always tell them what I thought.

"I told them I would listen to them and support them as long as they didn't try to change what I thought. I don't think all of them appreciated that until it worked to their benefit."

It was the same approach Deaton took with all the mayors he worked for, including Tom Bradley, Richard Riordan, James Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa.

Each had his own strengths, Deaton says, but as he looks back he has come to most appreciate Bradley's years in office.

"Tom Bradley grew up in the city," Deaton said. "He worked on the police force and was a councilman for a long time before he became mayor. He understood the city and was willing to compromise with the council to get things done. He was very open-minded to new ideas."

It also was a different time.

It was a time when council members could cross the marble hallway between their chamber and the Mayor's Office and walk in to talk with Bradley without having to maneuver through a phalanx of security and secretaries.

"It isn't practical today, but I wonder if we lose something by not having that communication," Deaton said.

Deaton served as chief legislative analyst for 10 years, due mainly to the support of longtime Council President John Ferraro, who served as both a mentor and benefactor to Deaton.

One of the biggest political battles in which Deaton played a central role was the San Fernando Valley secession vote -- an issue he now says was probably good for the city and for the Valley, even though it failed.

"These issues had been festering for years, with the Valley and the harbor and other areas not feeling they were getting their fair share," Deaton said. "Looking back, it was probably good it happened when it did because, otherwise, we would still be dealing with it today.

"I really do think secession would have been bad for the Valley, in the end. The city just owned all this property that it would have kept, the cost for services would be so high and the city would have kept the water and power system. We tried to talk about it at the time, but we were accused of just working to fight secession."

What the Valley achieved, however, was much more than it could have won otherwise, he said.

"It brought the Valley together and it made the rest of the city aware of its needs and how services are provided," Deaton said. "The debate alone was the best thing that could have happened. It became about more than the Valley, but about the entire city and what it does.

"As strange as this sounds coming from me, it turned out to be good for the city."

And with all of that, he says he thinks most fondly of the people he has worked with over the years.

"I have been thinking a lot of what I want to tell people and it's mostly about the city workers," Deaton said. "I think what I want to remind people is that they are doing the best they can.

"A lot of them don't understand what goes on in the council chambers and they might have a different idea about how to get things done, but they all work to do the right thing to help the citizens of this city. I think that gets lost some times.

"And I want to thank the citizens of Los Angeles. They want a good city and care about it a great deal. And they have given me a good life."

rick.orlov(at)dailynews.com

213-978-0390

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When Ron Deaton left City Hall last year, he had been leading the Department of Water and Power.