How Mayor Villaraigosa Spends His 16-Hour Days

MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA logged roughly 900 hours of work during a 10-week period from May 21 to August 1, a time during which he repeatedly touted his 16-to-18-hour, seven-day-a-week workload. (Click here for main feature, "The All-About-Me Mayor," by Patrick Range McDonald.)

L.A. Weekly found that his days actually average about 13 hours, and we sorted the approximately 900 total hours into five categories. (To view a PDF of his schedule obtained by the L.A. Weekly go here.)

TRIPS: 34 percent of his official workload, 310 hours, was spent on out-of-town travel — 10 times in 10 weeks. Most of it was blacked out by Villaraigosa’s office, but the Weekly has independently determined that he made fund-raising jaunts to New York, Chicago and San Francisco, plus traveled to Hawaii, Israel, London, Miami (where he fit in a quick fund-raiser), Oakland and San Diego.

GAP TIME: 24 percent of his official workload, or 220 hours, was only vaguely identified. These areas of his hour-by-hour schedule were dominated by gap-time activities, such as continually moving from one event to another.

BLACKED OUT: 21 percent of his official workload, or 186 hours, was largely blacked-out time the Weekly could not identify but which was said by the mayor’s aides to be spent on fund-raising for his 2009 mayoral race, and personal, family and “security-related” activities.

CEREMONIAL OR PR: 10 percent of his official workload, or 88 hours, was spent on largely ceremonial or public-relations endeavors, including staged press conferences (usually on noncritical or fluffy topics rather than breaking news), prepping for staged press conferences, giving prearranged media interviews and attending ceremonies, receptions, luncheons, banquets and awards.

CITY WORK: 11 percent of his official workload, or 96 hours, was spent in Los Angeles doing direct work on city business. A big chunk of that time involved meeting with special-interest or lobbying groups, while another chunk — 11 hours — went to participating as a voting board member at Metro transit meetings. This category also included policy work, three hours and 45 minutes in discussions with his chief of staff, three hours and 15 minutes signing legislative documents, two hours and 25 minutes spent on “call time/correspondence,” and occasional meetings with city department heads.

(Click here formain feature, "The All-About-Me Mayor," by Patrick Range McDonald.)