Mayor won't commit on term limits

At Mayor Villaraigosa's press conference this afternoon to help unveil Councilwoman Wendy Greuel's "anti-gridlock zone" signs, he refused to say whether he would sign or veto the City Council's attempt to relax term limits. Villaraigosa told me and a couple of other reporters that he had not read the measure sent to him by the council — the talk of City Hall for days. In brief, the measure would ask the voters in November to let incumbent council members run for a third term, and package that with some campaign reform steps written by a lobbying firm rather than the city Ethics Commission. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo has urged the mayor to veto, saying the measure is legally defective by taking on two unrelated subjects and will just be overturned. When Villaraigosa wouldn't bite, insisting he wasn't familiar with the language, I asked how he felt about the concept of extending council service in general. He wouldn't bite on that either, except to say that he opposed term limits when they were first imposed.

Greuel's measure signed today by the mayor would double the ticket for rush hour stopping or parking where signs forbid it, to $140, and let towing companies charge you $166 on top that. She and the mayor both said that the cost is intentionally stiff to discourage parking that clogs traffic during peak times. Red signs reading "anti-gridlock zone" will be posted on major boulevards all over the city, though what this has to do with gridlock I'm still not sure.