Councilman’s Woes Greeted by Understanding

Colleagues and constituents rallied around Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Hernandez on Friday, praising him for checking into a detoxification center after his arrest Thursday on suspicion of possessing cocaine, and brushing aside any suggestion that the incident should trigger his ouster from office.

“It’s time for American society to grow up and see these kinds of substance abuse issues as the illnesses they are and not as personal shortcomings,” said Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who sat next to Hernandez in the council’s horseshoe for several years and has a nearly identical, liberal voting record.

“People are worried about what impact it’s going to have on the Hispanic community. . . . I’m more concerned about Mike Hernandez,” said a somber Councilman Richard Alatorre, who has battled his own addiction to alcohol and, like Hernandez, represents the largely Latino Eastside. “I just would hope that people would understand this is a disease, a sickness. Sometimes to get better, you have to hit bottom. Sometimes the bottom is not only painful, it’s costly.”

Some of Hernandez’s more visible political opponents focused on what they see as the implications of a highly visible Latino leader succumbing to one of the scourges plaguing L.A.’s poor minority neighborhoods. One such opponent called for the councilman’s resignation.

“He’s no longer a role model for us,” said Caesar Aguirre, one of several people whom Hernandez defeated in 1991 during his first council bid. “I do sympathize with his illness . . . but, meanwhile, we have immediate needs that need to be met.”

But most, including some of Hernandez’s political enemies, were surprisingly sympathetic to the plight of the former bail bondsman who has championed society’s downtrodden, from illiterate workers to hungry babies and immigrants living in overcrowded housing.

Another former electoral opponent even said a planned recall attempt might be dropped because of the incident. “My husband is rethinking it--he thinks maybe we should back off. He doesn’t dislike Hernandez personally, he just dislikes his politics,” said Joyce Durand, whose husband, Jean-Marie Durand, lost to Hernandez in 1993. “In Mike’s personal life, this is going to be a very difficult time. If we start a recall campaign, it might backfire: People might sympathize with him and say, ‘Oh, when someone is down, you’re going to kick him again?’ ”

Barring a recall, officials said it is unlikely that the arrest will force Hernandez from office. The City Charter provides for a council member’s ouster if he or she is convicted of a felony; authorities say Hernandez is likely to work out a plea agreement for a lesser charge.

Lawmakers can also be dismissed for misdemeanors if they relate to official duties, or for being absent from the city for 60 days or failing to handle business for 90 days.

Only one other City Council member has been arrested while in office: Tom Shepard was convicted in 1969 on bribery charges connected to a zoning case; his term on the council had expired by the time the case ended.

With a review of Hernandez’s City Hall office expenses quietly looming, his staff was quick to discount the possibility that the councilman’s drug use could have led to financial problems there.

Morrie Goldman, Hernandez’s chief of staff, said the councilman had no direct contact with the office budget. “There’s no money missing. I would know if there was,” he said. “No one has said anything to me to lead me to believe that [another staffer] is a suspect in any way or involved.”

Some at City Hall said the incident was reminiscent of the 1990 sting operation that resulted in the arrest of Washington Mayor Marion Barry, who was caught on tape smoking crack. They questioned whether the police surveillance was justified for a case allegedly involving personal drug use, not drug sales by Hernandez.

Chosen in a special 1991 election to replace Gloria Molina when she ascended to the county Board of Supervisors, Hernandez had previously lost a race for the state Assembly. He soon built up a strong political base of grass-roots groups, working long hours on scores of projects in his district, which largely stretches northeast of downtown and includes Cypress Park, Lincoln Heights, Chinatown, Pico-Union, Chavez Ravine and Highland Park.

He has forged strong ties to the city’s immigrant communities--particularly those from Central America, but also Asians. In an era of anti-immigrant fervor highlighted by the passage of Proposition 187 in 1994, Hernandez has been an unwavering advocate for a group of people often shunned by politicians: noncitizens ineligible to go to the ballot box.

“That Mike took positions on behalf of people who do not vote is admirable on his part,” said Robert Lovato, former executive director of the Central American Resource Center. “I personally lament these allegations, but Mike Hernandez has no reason to bow his head politically. Mike has a better feeling than most for those people who constitute the new Los Angeles.”

During the 1992 riots, Hernandez was a whirlwind presence in the fiery neighborhoods of Pico-Union, dialing 911 dozens of times to alert police to flash points of problems, then holding press conferences and neighborhood meetings and appearing repeatedly on Spanish-language television to urge calm.

On a more practical level, Hernandez is credited with helping bring a new soccer field to the park-starved Temple-Beaudry area, securing funding for community centers and after-school programs, and backing efforts to improve housing in neighborhoods filled with some of the city’s most dilapidated dwellings. With his signature ties bearing images of Disney’s Goofy, he led the campaign for a $750-million parks bond dubbed “L.A. for Kids” that squeaked by voters in June, and was key to the creation of the city’s new Commission on Children, Youth and Their Families.

News of his arrest resounded on the streets of Hernandez’s 1st District, and reverberated through Latino Los Angeles and the rest of the region’s vast immigrant community.

“We’re hurting with him. I just wanted to cry for him and his family when I heard,” said Beatriz Olvera Stotzer, president of New Economics for Women, a group that worked with the councilman on several projects. “Mike is committed to protecting the poor and creating opportunities for all of Los Angeles. We have very few politicians in Los Angeles who are doing that.”

A few blocks away, Guadalupe Olague said she was surprised by the troubles of the man who had helped build a soccer field in what had been a rubble-strewn lot across from her small market, Lupita’s.

“That lot used to be full of homeless people, and now it’s a proper place for children to play,” she said while taking a break from stocking her shelves with canned goods. “We don’t have that many parks around here.”

Some activists who have worked with the councilman saw a particular irony in the drug arrest of Hernandez, who has fought hard against the proliferation of liquor stores, gang hangouts, cheap motels, abandoned properties and other sites that tend to draw drug traffic.

“Any addiction is a public health problem, and no one is immune to it,” said Sylvia Castillo, associate director of the Community Coalition for Substance Abuse, Prevention and Treatment, a South Los Angeles-based group that has worked with Hernandez. “We hope that Councilman Hernandez is afforded the same thing that any other citizen should have: a chance to recover and carry on with his life.”

While Hernandez recently has enjoyed increasing success with economic development projects in his district and has been gaining power inside City Hall, the past few months have been devastating for him personally. His beloved mother, Bee, died in June, and an uncle died this week. He staved off a surprisingly strong election challenge this spring, only to be rebuffed by council colleagues in a close ballot for the panel’s second-in-command post.

Hernandez also has been experiencing marital difficulties.

“He’s just going through a lot of stuff right now,” said Lily Ramirez, the councilman’s next-door neighbor and a close family friend for more than three decades. “He’s always been a nervous guy--always tapping his foot, squinting his eyes. Then work--poor guy. I don’t think it ever stops.”

Indeed, Hernandez was known at City Hall for toiling late into the night, chain-smoking menthol cigarettes in his chaotic, paper-strewn office. But he was also a famous partyer--on Mondays he would be shooting pool at the Golden Cue in Glendale, on Fridays he was often catching oldies shows at the Brave Bull, a San Gabriel steakhouse.

“He’s always trying to do too much--he’s just a workaholic,” sighed Fred Balderramma, a friend for 20 years who owns the Brave Bull. “A lot of his close friends have talked to him, and said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to slow down.’ But he just can’t do enough. Seven days a week, he’s always doing something for the community.”

While most respect his passion and dedication, Hernandez’s intense temper has often led to trouble. He has repeatedly clashed with council colleagues in closed session over racial issues, once nearly coming to blows with African American Councilman Nate Holden.

Detractors say his in-your-face style and penchant for suburbia-bashing alienated fellow lawmakers and made it more difficult for him to achieve legislative victories. Molina, a former ally, endorsed his opponent this spring, saying Hernandez had lost touch with his community.

Hernandez’s staff members said Friday that they were shocked by his arrest.

Goldman, his chief of staff, met Hernandez at the LAPD’s Central Division about 1 a.m. Friday and, after the councilman was questioned by police, took him to a detox center outside the city. They were together until about 4:30 a.m., and then spoke later Friday. Goldman said he is unsure how long Hernandez will be in treatment.

Goldman said that he did not ask his boss how long he had been using drugs, and that they did not discuss the sting operation that led to the arrest. Hernandez gave instructions to be open and honest with the press and the public, made a statement apologizing to constituents and colleagues, and simply said he was sick and hoped to get better.

“When I was saying goodbye to him this morning,” Goldman said, “he felt he was on the way to getting help.

“The word from him was, ‘I’m glad it’s over.’ ”

Times staff writers Jeff Leeds, Robert J. Lopez, Josh Meyer, Jim Newton, James Rainey, Nicholas Riccardi, Beth Shuster and Richard Simon also contributed to this story.

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REACTION TO THE ARREST

“It’s time for American society to grow up and see these kinds of substance abuse issues as the illnesses they are and not as personal shortcomings.”

--Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg

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“People are worried about what impact it’s going to have on the Hispanic community and everything else--I’m more concerned about Mike Hernandez.”

--Councilman Richard Alatorre