NICK PACHECO
The former City Counci man on how Villaraigosa neglected District 14, the Vignali letter, and keepin
There's a bunch of reasons for checking in with Nick Pacheco, and not just because the Eagle Rock lawyer would be the front-runner to win District 14's City Council seat should mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa's poll numbers hold up through Election Day. The 41-year-old Eagle Rock lawyer, who ran unsuccessfully for district attorney after losing a brutal 2003 council campaign against Villaraigosa, wants to return to office. He's eager to distance himself from an ill-fated alignment with the Thever & Associates law firm as well as disassociate himself from an ethics probe resulting from that last District 14 race.
Where his onetime opponent is concerned, Pacheco's perspective tends to be meta. This former prosecutor is more concerned about illegal taco vending in Highland Park ("He dropped the ball. It's one of the things that, if you don't pay attention to it, it comes back") than a 1996 letter the then-assemblyman wrote on behalf of convicted cocaine dealer Carlos Vignali ("That he would write a letter, that's in people's psyches"). Regardless, his criticisms of Villaraigosa resonate. As any resident of District 14 could tell you, the needs of this largely Latino and Anglo area, which encompasses Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Mount Washington, and parts of downtown, nearly mirror those of the city that encompasses it.
CityBeat: How is District 14 representative of the broader L.A.?
Nick Pacheco: The interesting thing about District 14 is that you have that whole downtown experience, the rebirth. And at the same time, it has the bedroom communities - the more traditional notion of a neighborhood and a community. So it's really the best of both worlds, when you're talking about council districts. And it has a good mixture of Latinos and non-Latinos.
Is District 14 in as good a shape as you left it?
There's a general sense of it not being as clean. I don't think it's in as good a condition as I left it. There was a general transition, and things just got behind. I think there's widespread concern in the district about what's gonna happen to them now. If Antonio wins, there's concern about what's going to happen to all the work that's required. And if he loses, what kind of relationship are we going to have with someone who doesn't want to be the councilmember? It wasn't really necessary to knock me out so that he could be mayor. In the two years, he hasn't really spent time doing that job. He didn't really use the office to form a platform.
You and Jimmy Blackman, Villaraigosa's chief of staff, had a harsh paper fight about some unfinished community projects - the Garvanza Skateboard Park, District 14's dog park, and the Moon Canyon Land Acquisition, among other things. Why haven't they been completed?
The common thread among them is that the council office keeps representing to people that they don't have money to finish projects, or they're looking for money to finish projects. The council office's standard response is that we don't have the money.
Do you think that Villaraigosa has done enough with the district?
City services are one of those things that, unless you're on top of it every single day, unless you make that your priority, it's really easy for things to get behind and fall through the cracks. So, [Pacheco's administration] made an extra effort to really be connected to the other departments and work with the communities to learn how to access these services directly, so they can bypass the council office, if necessary. Here's the way I would put it: All of the talent and skill and contacts that Antonio brings to the table, unfortunately, were not applied to Council District 14.
And why is that?
I can't answer that. I can tell you from my observation I don't think they were there. I don't know why. All of Antonio's talent, contacts, and abilities - if they were directly focused on the district, those projects would definitely not have been behind. And would have been finished pretty quickly.
What's up with Villaraigosa's stammering? Was this such an issue when you were debating in 2003?
I've got to be honest with you, my concern is less academic and more personal. Here's what I can tell you: I have no idea why he stumbles through words. None. But I can tell you it's not new. When we were debating in 2003, very late in the debates, and very often, he would stumble through words, trying to figure out, lose his train of thought and have to re-find it. I don't know what the genesis of that is.
Has it gotten worse over the years?
It's a different dynamic - when you're sitting there right next to him, with your adrenaline pumping in the debate - from watching it from the couch. I don't know if it's gotten worse. It's hard to tell from where I sit.
Last time we talked, you said Villaraigosa hasn't given a satisfactory answer to why he went to bat for Carlos Vignali. You said, "To say he's sorry is one thing, but it's not an explanation."
Right. It will hound him until he gives a satisfactory answer as to why he did it. Not [to say] that he regrets it or that he apologizes for it. But why did you do it? And until he gets over that hurdle - it's always gonna be something that a voter can consider in why they won't vote for him. Remember, it always depends on the voter, right?
But Lee Baca went to bat heavily for Vignali. Bob Hertzberg wrote a letter. Why do you think it's something that he, in particular, is tarred with?
Because he was the first one to be tarred with it effectively, in the 2001 campaign. That's why. And no one else has. No one else has had to deal with that letter in any effective campaign. It's the luck of the draw. Sorry. I mean, there was nothing special about it. I believe he's the one who had the strongest language. If he hadn't gone out on a limb and said [Vignali] was innocent, he wouldn't be suffering this much. It sticks in the back of people's minds and it lingers and then it gets brought up again, as you see. I was actually surprised, because I kinda believed all the Antonio supporters who said it was an old issue.
Do you miss being in the world that you had up until 2003?
I definitely miss being a councilmember. It was a job I really enjoyed. I thought I did a good job in the district and the community.
You ran for district attorney. What would you do differently, if you were to become a candidate again?
I would be much more relaxed, to be honest with you. I would be more myself. I think that, during the campaigns, I was just coming out of the District Attorney's office, and I still had the veneer of a prosecutor. So doing it over again, my sense of humor would shine more.Published: 04/28/2005
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