Endorsements

And largely because she has that independence of spirit in abundance, we are supporting outgoing City Councilwoman Laura Chick to be Tuttle’s successor.

In her eight years representing her politically centrist West Valley district on the council, Chick has championed greater civilian oversight of the LAPD (in particular, fighting to strengthen the department’s inspector general well before Rampart came to light) and supported the living-wage ordinance — in short, taken positions that a more cautious member might have shunned. As chair of the council’s Public Safety Committee, she repeatedly stood up to the mayor and his fuglemen, questioning the adequacy of the LAPD’s training programs and asserting the council’s right to oversee not just the LAPD’s budget but its policy as well. In matters fiscal, she created a system for evaluating city contractors, and demonstrated her commitment to open government by authoring the legislation mandating online filings of candidates’ financial statements. Chick has been around long enough to know where the bodies are buried, and has lost none of her zeal to dig them up.

Her chief opponent, Laurette Healey, has been a notably successful chief financial officer and president of several entertainment-related businesses, including the joint-venture operation of the Home Shopping Network. She’s also been active in fund-raising for breast cancer research and in promoting anti-hate-crimes legislation. Initially, she had planned to run for the school board, but Mayor Riordan offered his support if she ran for controller instead. (Laura Chick was not the mayor’s favorite council member.) We don’t doubt that Healey would be a conscientious controller, but she lacks Chick’s knowledge of all the nooks and crannies where city officials and contractors can hide their more questionable dealings. Besides, if there’s one city official you don’t want beholden to a powerful patron — as Healey is to Riordan — it’s the controller. “If you’re doing your job here,” says Tuttle, “you’re offending the people at the top of the city’s power centers.” Laura Chick, who brings the right combination of smarts and moxie to this position, has already shown she can do just that, and we support her enthusiastically.