A nod from Bernard Parks, the ex-LAPD chief turned city councilman, decided the derby for council president, Howard Fine reports in the lead story in Los Angeles Business Journal. If Parks had committed to Wendy Greuel, she would have had the eight votes needed to topple Alex Padilla. But Parks says that while he was still police chief, he was impressed with Padilla's leadership of the city after 9-11 when Mayor Jim Hahn was out of town. In what may be a veiled acknowledgment of future ambitions, Parks also said part of his thinking was to improve ties between blacks and Latinos in the city. So instead of being tossed aside, Padilla emerges a big winner, says Fine:

Aside: I have a piece on the potential for political theater in the new City Council in the August issue of Los Angeles magazine, on newsstands now as they say.

Also in Monday's Business Journal:

There's a good front-pager by RiShawn Biddle on the continuing implosion of hipster hotelier Ian Schrager's empire, an inside feature on Red Hen Press (the Granada Hills publisher of the upcoming Los Angeles Review) and a look at the lawsuit filed by Hollywood security-meister Gavin de Becker against author David Weddle over his book, Among the Mansions of Eden: Tales of Love, Lust and Land in Beverly Hills. Here's the generic LABJ link, but good luck with it.