Patrick Range McDonaldPlease see today's L.A. Weekly cover story, “L.A. Mayor With Baggage Seeks Job: Antonio Villaraigosa's quest for Wall Street, Washington and wealth,” and check out the mayor's original, unedited schedule, obtained by the Weekly, at the end of the next page.
In 2008, L.A. Weekly obtained Mayor Villaraigosa's official work schedule and discovered that he spent only 11 percent of his time on direct mayoral work. Critics dubbed him “the 11 percent mayor.” Four years later, as he leaves office, we revisited his calendar. We found that Villaraigosa is deeply devoted to photo ops, ceremonies and travel, spending just 15 percent of his day on core duties such as deciding upon policy or weighing laws. He spends 42 percent of his working hours traveling outside Los Angeles.
During the 15-week period from September 1 to December 16, 2012, he logged roughly 1,234 hours of official work, 12 hours a day. He divides his time into the same five categories we unearthed in 2008: Trips, Gap Time (getting from event to event), Personal Time/Blacked Out, Ceremonial or PR, and City Work.
Here's the breakdown by category of how he really spends his time, 2012 versus 2008:
Villaraigosa Working Hours in 2012 by Category:
TRIPS:
42 percent of Villaraigosa's official workload, 516 hours, was spent on out-of-town travel — 18 destinations in 15 weeks. He took trips to Charlotte, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C., Milwaukee, Denver, Seattle, and South America, among other places. He stayed at luxury AAA “four diamond” hotels as well as the posh Hay-Adams Hotel in D.C. and the Andaz boutique hotel in New York City. He also attended a “lunch” in Houston that was given in his honor.
GAP TIME:
18 percent of his official workload, or 221 hours, was only vaguely identified or not at all. These areas of his hour-by-hour schedule were dominated by gap-time activities, such as continually moving from one event to another.
PERSONAL TIME/BLACKED OUT:
9 percent of his official workload, or 106 hours, was either blacked-out time the Weekly could not identify or was marked “personal” or “private” time on his calendar. Villaraigosa, for example, took a “private meeting” on Monday, September 17, between 11:15 and 11:45 a.m. He took “private calls” on Wednesday, September 19, for two hours between 3:30 and 5:30 p.m. And on October 23, he took a “private meeting” between 12 noon and 12:45 p.m., “personal time” between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m., and a “private dinner” between 8 and 9:30 p.m.
CEREMONIAL OR PR:
15 percent of his official workload, or 188 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:
15 percent of his official workload, or 188 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. This category also included policy work, nearly 9 hours in discussions with L.A. Chief Administrative Officer Miguel Santana, nearly five hours meeting with LAPD chief Charlie Beck, roughly 5 hours meeting with L.A. City Council members, and 30 minutes with L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, with occasional meetings with city department heads.
Villaraigosa Working Hours in 2008 by Category:
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.
Update: Watch KNBC video with the mayor's reponse:
View more videos at: https://nbclosangeles.com.
Read the mayor's official daily work calendar for yourself after the jump:
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