*Austin Beutner sounding more like a mayoral candidate

L.A.'s deputy mayor in charge of... well, lots of stuff, spoke at the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce today, and according to Downtown News Executive Editor Jon Regardie, he sounded a lot like a candidate.

Beutner gave a brief bio, discussing his upbringing and his time in Russia at the behest of President Bill Clinton, mentioning meeting a then-vice mayor of St. Petersburg named Vladimir Putin. He segued into how he opened the venture capital firm Evercore ("We had a little bit of good fortune") and after breaking his neck in a biking accident, reassessed his priorities and joined the city, where he works for Antonio Villaraigosa as first deputy mayor. Then it sounded even more like a mayor's race stump speech: Beutner detailed a (legitimately impressive) list of achievements during his first 15 months, from cutting costs at the Department of Water & Power to launching permitting reform programs for restaurants and large developments to helping get community college students trained for car repair jobs.

So is he running? "I'm seriously considering it," he told the audience. "We are at a crossroads in Los Angeles." He expects to make a decision within a month. Let's hope he takes a good, hard look at his prospects, which I suspect aren't all that good. Not that he shouldn't be mayoral material - Beutner has accomplished quite a lot in his short time at City Hall (and against considerable odds). It's just that I don't see how he can put together a winning coalition, especially with so many council members entering the race - folks who have played the grimy game before.

*LAT reports that Beutner said the city should make good on pension commitments for the current workforce. "We made promises. People are owed their pensions," he said. That would seem to be at odds with the findings of the Little Hoover Commission, which proposed that state and local pension commitments be rolled back for current employees.