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Here's an odd story out of Los Angeles City Hall by David Zahniser in the Breeze. Seems that Alex Padilla, the president of the City Council, and the chief of staff to councilman Greig Smith were spotted last weekend shooting video inside the closed -- and locked -- suite of Mayor Jim Hahn. They didn't have permission to be there, says Hahn's office, but had talked City Hall guards into unlocking doors for them.
Padilla and Mitch Englander explain the after-hours entry as innocent, "part of their effort to shoot a satiric video for an upcoming American Diabetes Association fund-raiser in which Padilla will be a featured guest. Padilla had the mistaken impression that he was allowed to go into Hahn's office and has already apologized to the mayor, Padilla spokesman David Gershwin said. 'There was no harm intended.'"
The mayor's sister, councilwoman Janice Hahn, calls it a "childish prank" that showed lack of respect on Padilla's part. Englander retorts that "some people have a sense of humor, some people don't...it ruffled some feathers, but that's what spoofs usually do."
Count Hahn's communications deputy Julie Wong among the un-amused. The guards who let Padilla in are being investigated. "It's a matter of security, and we want to make sure that concerns about getting into the mayor's office are addressed," Wong said. "If they had asked, we would have met them here and let them in."
Also in the Daily Breeze: Hahn's 11-year-old son Jackson was in a film that showed at Sundance this year.
You don't think elected officials should have offices they can lock to keep political rivals from wandering through looking for stuff at night and on weekends?
Posted by: Kevin Roderick at February 25, 2004 04:59 PMI think that if they are silly enough to keep strategic materials in plain view in their office they deserve to be unelected. You wouldn't even do that at a bank; why would you do it in the office of a public servant, which is far more allegedly public? Strategic documents you take home; files you lock up; but offices you must presume are always open, even when they're doors are shut.
Posted by: joseph at February 25, 2004 05:16 PMInteresting, and dare I say unique, take. And what would the public have to gain from being allowed 24/7 access to an assistant deputy mayor's desk when said D.A.M is home on a Sunday night?
Posted by: Kevin Roderick at February 25, 2004 05:52 PMAll it sounds like is a wacky prank by two loveable civil servants.
I just hope they compared their entry/exit times with the seized (it was seized, right?) tape to make sure their wacky fun story isn't BS.
Posted by: The Lonewacko Blog at February 25, 2004 07:31 PMI don't think they have anything to gain at all, all I am saying is that most professionals in business as well as city GMs do not leave anything sensitive out in plain view in their offices at night. Entering an office, which is done for cleaning and a host of other reasons (mine was once entered by a film crew who broke a window in it, for instance) is not the same as unlocking a file cabinet or rifing through a briefcase. Policing the traffic that has access to an office is the Office Manager's call--if anyone has a beef with his or her decisions about it, that's who should get called on the carpet.
Posted by: joseph at February 26, 2004 09:41 AM
of LA Observed
Huh. I thought We The People owned the Mayor's Office, and that even City Council presidents could be trusted there. I guess the Hahns think of it as their private and personal lair. That's what being a second-generation civil servant will do to you, I guess.
Posted by: joseph at February 25, 2004 03:45 PM