THE TIMES POLL : Riordan’s Popularity Slips to 46% at Midterm

As he hits the midpoint of his term, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan’s popularity has slipped substantially, in part because many residents feel there has been no real progress in solving the city’s many problems over the last year, The Times Poll has found.

Residents gave Riordan, who reached the halfway point of his four-year term Saturday, an approval rating of 46%, a 13-point slide from the 59% who thought he was doing a good job a year ago.

The mayor lost ground among blacks, whites and Latinos. Although he held on to his support on the Westside and in the city’s center, his approval rating dropped markedly in the San Fernando Valley and South Los Angeles.

The slippage was most surprising in the Valley, a Riordan stronghold in the 1993 elections. In the survey, conducted last week, only 44% of Valley residents said they approved of Riordan’s performance in office, in contrast to the 73% who gave him a thumbs up in June, 1994. He also suffered a precipitous drop among blacks, from 41% to 28%.

The mayor did better among registered voters--53% approved of his performance and 48% said they would vote to reelect him. He also performed well among whites (54%), and still enjoys strong support on the Westside and among Jews, Republicans and the elderly. Residents also think more highly of him than they do the City Council, whose 37% approval rating is largely unchanged from last year.

But many residents believe Riordan, a wealthy businessman elected two years ago on a promise that he would be “tough enough to turn L.A. around,” is not a strong leader and has not made a dent in crime and the economy--two issues they care most about.

“People don’t feel better about the city, about its economy, public safety or its government. They don’t perceive any progress in these areas, and the mayor may be bearing the brunt of that,” said John Brennan, Times Poll director. Only 36% of those surveyed believed that things are going well for the city, while 62% said they are going badly. Those attitudes have changed little since last year. Significantly, 82% called the city economy shaky; at the same time last year, 79% felt that way.

The poll of 1,015 city residents--including citizens and non-citizens, those who vote and those who do not--was conducted by telephone over three evenings last week. It has a margin of sampling error of about 3.5 percentage points in either direction.

Although crime dropped almost 13% in the city last year, it is still seen by residents as the city’s biggest problem. Fifty percent say Riordan has not done much to improve the situation, while 44% believe he has made substantial progress. Forty-one percent of those surveyed cited crime as the most pressing issue facing the city, with 29% citing gangs and 14% citing drugs. The other major concern was unemployment. Twelve percent said unemployment was the biggest concern.

Sixty-six percent of those surveyed says the Police Department is doing a good job--but more of the credit for that goes to Police Chief Willie L. Williams than the mayor, the poll found.

Riordan’s ratings with residents were hurt by his Police Commission’s clash with Williams, the city’s first black police chief and a highly popular official. Williams recently was reprimanded by commissioners for allegedly lying about whether he had accepted free hotel rooms at a Las Vegas hotel-casino. Riordan upheld the reprimand after reviewing the commission’s confidential record of its investigation, but the chief, angrily denying that he had been untruthful, appealed to the City Council and threatened to sue over leaks of parts of his private personnel record. The council quickly overturned the reprimand--without ever looking at the record.

A strong majority of residents--65%--said they approve of the way Williams is doing his job; 61% said he has helped lower crime and 65% said he has helped improve the LAPD--all more favorable ratings than those accorded the mayor.

In addition, 59% said Williams’ contract should be renewed when it expires in two years. Fifty-three percent said they approved of the City Council’s overturning the reprimand of Williams, but 57% said it was inappropriate to do so without reading the police commission’s report, and 55% said the record should have been made public. Only Williams is authorized to release the record, and he has declined to do so.

Riordan’s drop in popularity is not all bad news for the mayor, who already has declared his intention to run again in 1997.

“The saving grace for the mayor is that there is not a lot more anti-Riordan feeling out there, except among blacks,” Brennan said. “There’s a lot of shoulder-shrugging.”

That is surprising for an incumbent politician, said Brennan, noting that the percentage of residents who answered “don’t know” about the mayor’s performance has climbed substantially, while the numbers of those who disapprove of him has risen only slightly.

Two years ago, Riordan’s electoral strength came largely from whites on the Westside and in the San Fernando Valley. Blacks were the only racial group to vote resoundingly against him in his contest against then-Councilman Mike Woo. Riordan has clashed repeatedly with some of the city’s black political leaders, who charge that the white, affluent, Republican mayor snubs them and does not care about their minority, largely poor constituents. Riordan vigorously denies these assertions and says discontent is being fanned by the political ambitions of some of his critics.

The poll found growing disenchantment with him among blacks--only 28% said they approved of him, down from 41% a year ago, while 45% disapproved, up from 36% last year. There also was some slippage of support among Latinos--42% approved of the job he is doing, down from 58% a year ago. A majority of whites, 54%, still approved of the mayor, but that is a drop from the 69% rating among whites a year ago.

Tiebing Guan, 37, of Brentwood was one of the 40% of residents surveyed who credited the mayor with trying to serve all groups in the city. “I think he’s a generally sincere kind of person without a lot of political baggage,” said Guan, a Chinese American who added that he had not seen the mayor make any special efforts to reach out to Asians. But describing his community as less active and well organized than other groups, he said, “I can’t fault the mayor specifically for that.”

Although many surveyed seem unfamiliar with Riordan’s accomplishments in office, he has made progress toward his top goal: beefing up and modernizing the LAPD. The ranks have swelled by about 200 officers, a training center has been added and money has been procured for computers and other ways to make better use of police officers’ time.

Riordan also has begun bringing more streamlined, corporate-style management techniques and a more “customer-friendly” atmosphere to City Hall. But changes in bureaucracies are not usually apparent to the average citizen, and Riordan’s main plan for meeting another priority--bringing more jobs to a recession-weary city--has yet to take hold. His Administration’s proposed community development bank, aimed at pumping jobs-creating capital into the poorest sections of town, is still in the organizational stage and not expected to open its doors until late summer.

The poll found that 42% believe that the mayor has done a good job of making city government run more efficiently; just 33% credit him with bringing jobs to Los Angeles.

The largest number of those who approve of Riordan--25%--gave no particular reason for their good opinion. Sixteen percent said he could get things done, and 11% said he was trying and had made no major mistakes. Very few named specific actions the mayor had taken.

Among those who disapproved of him, 13% said they just disliked him, but another 13% said he has not created jobs or brought economic growth, and 10% said he had treated Chief Williams badly. Nine percent said he was too wishy-washy and not a strong leader.

Poll respondent Warren Hollier, 73, an African American who once headed the city’s Board of Public Works, said he likes Riordan for his positive, can-do attitude, and thinks critics should give him more time.

“I’m not one of those people who expect the world to turn over in one night,” Hollier said, “but I do believe Riordan is exhibiting the right, positive attitude about business, police on the beat . . . all those things that people are talking about.”

But Beverly Maddox, 39, a disabled, unemployed resident of South-Central Los Angeles, is less patient. “I see people just struggling. I expected him to bring in jobs, but I just wonder when .”

Hema Amarasinghe, a 53-year-old accountant who lives in Tujunga, said: “I have been monitoring the economy and generally following the trends and, frankly, I expected more from the mayor. I expected a big improvement, and it didn’t come.”

Others saw similar trends, but stopped short of blaming the mayor. “There’s just a lot of people on the streets,” said one respondent, Betty Maldonado, a 33-year-old clerical worker and baby-sitter from South-Central Los Angeles. “I don’t feel it’s [Riordan’s] fault, though. It’s not anybody’s fault. It’s just the economy. Nobody can help it.”

Only 39% of residents polled thought Riordan provided strong leadership--a quality the mayor has always prized in himself and others.

Retired research scientist Joseph Burton, 62, a white resident of Van Nuys, said he expected Riordan “to stand up and take a strong stand, but he’s wishy-washy. He takes stands on things that make him look good and the rest he just backs away from,” Burton said.

Paige Yorimitsu, 25, an insurance firm accounting assistant from Hancock Park, said she believes Riordan has ignored the neediest communities. “If he really wants to do something to help, he should do something about job training and get businesses in here,” said Yorimitsu, who is black.

But Diana Ugalde, 30, a housewife and mother in Echo Park, said Riordan is a strong leader because she believes he has made a difference. “I’ve seen so many changes,” Ugalde said. “Things seem cleaner, more peaceful--Downtown and in my neighborhood.”

Many poll respondents seemed unaware of many of Riordan’s initiatives, including efforts to keep businesses from leaving the city and to bring jobs to its neediest communities.

“He needs to be more visible,” Brennan said. “People don’t perceive that he is working on these things.”

Reflecting his corporate roots, Riordan, whose first bid for public office landed him in the city’s top political job, prefers to work quietly behind the scenes. He relies on old friends and trusted associates from the business and philanthropic communities to advise him and often seems uncomfortable with the time-consuming democratic process. He rarely holds news conferences, and his scheduled public events consist largely of dinners, dedications, community bicycle rides and other ceremonial events.

His predecessor, Tom Bradley, made regular and well-publicized daylong visits to various neighborhoods a staple of his long Administration. Riordan usually has no more than one or two public appearances a day, and does not hold community meetings with open agendas.

“A lot of politicians get a tremendous amount of mileage from using their offices as a bully pulpit” to publicize their activities, Brennan said. “Riordan doesn’t seem to be doing this, and that’s not helping him.”

Assistant Times Poll Director Susan Pinkus and Times staff writer John M. Glionna contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Riordan Report Card

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan’s job rating had slipped from 59% to 46% in a year. Most city residents doubt he has made progress on the all-important problems of crime and job growth.

Why do you approve of the way Riordan is handling his job? (Asked of respondents who approve)* He can get things done/Can get the job done: 16% He’s trying/Made no major mistakes: 11% He is a strong leader: 7% He’s a businessman/Treats the city as a business: 7% He’s hiring more police/Improving the Police Department: 5% ****

Why do you disapprove of the way Riordan is handling his job? (Asked of respondents who disapprove)* Hasn’t created jobs/Brought no economic growth: 13% Bad treatment of Police Chief Willie L. Williams: 10% Hasn’t made any noticeable changes: 9% He’s too wishy-washy/Not strong leader: 9% Cut too many city programs: 8% ****

Do you approve or disapprove of the way Richard Riordan is handling his job as mayor? Approve: 46% Disapprove: 28% Don’t know: 26% ****

How would you rate Richard Riordan on the following:

Not so Excellent/ good/ Good Poor Improving the city of Los Angeles’ image 51% 42% Bringing honesty and integrity to city 50% 35% government Improving the Los Angeles Police Department 49% 42% Improving race relations 44% 45% Helping to lower crime in the city of 44% 50% Los Angeles Making city government run more efficiently 42% 43% Bringing jobs and economic opportunities to 33% 58% the city of Los Angeles

* Up to two replies accepted; top five mentions given

Note: Some numbers do not add to 100 because “don’t know” responses are not shown.

****

How the Poll was Conducted

The Times Poll interviewed 1,015 adult residents of the city of Los Angeles by telephone June 27-29. Numbers were chosen from a list of all exchanges in the city. Random-digit dialing techniques were used so that listed and unlisted numbers could be contacted. Interviewing was conducted in English and Spanish. The sample was weighted slightly to conform with census figures for sex, race, age, education and region. The margin of sampling error for the total sample is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points; for certain subgroups the error margin may be somewhat higher. Poll results can also be affected by other factors, such as question wording and the order in which questions are presented.