New Head of Technology Panel Quits After 1 Day

The new president of Mayor Richard Riordan’s Information Technology Commission quit the post after a single day in office Wednesday, a casualty, sources said, of the same brutal and widening Internet access fight that led to her predecessor’s resignation.

Joyce Emerson declined to comment on the reasons for her departure, referring all questions about it to the mayor’s office. Officials there said Riordan thanked his commissioner for her service and reiterated that the mayor remains committed to his position on high-speed Internet access.

Emerson’s departure is one of a slew of commission changes that have stirred controversy at City Hall this week. Hers is especially noteworthy because she inherited the presidency of the technology commission just one day earlier, upon the resignation of her predecessor, Alan Arkatov. Sources said Arkatov resigned because the commission was facing a major vote on high-speed Internet access, an issue on which he and Riordan disagreed. Rather than vote against the man who appointed him, Arkatov decided to quit, sources said.

Faced with the same choice, so did Emerson, according to the same sources.

Arkatov and Emerson favor slightly different versions of so-called “open access” to the Internet, while Riordan backs a franchise system in which cable television firms are allowed to provide their customers with exclusive access to their Internet services. Billions of dollars hang in the balance of that debate, which is raging in cities across the country and which could chart the future of high-speed Internet use nationwide.

Current technology allows Internet users who connect through television cable wires to operate about 100 times faster than those who access the network over phone wires. The resulting difference is so dramatic that many experts believe cable companies, if they invest in Internet services, stand to reap huge profits. Critics counter that cable companies should be treated in this respect more like phone carriers, who are required to allow other providers access to their wires.

The dispute is particularly sensitive in Los Angeles because of its size, its large number of Internet users and its symbolic importance: The Internet was invented here.

In the wake of Arkatov’s resignation, the commission mantle fell to Emerson. Sources said Riordan aides put pressure on her to change her position and endorse the mayor’s view at a meeting scheduled for next week, a move Emerson felt she could not take.

“This level of turnover at a moment of major policy debate is troubling,” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who chairs the council committee on technology issues.

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who opposed Riordan in the recent debate over charter reform and the powers it would grant Los Angeles’ mayor, said the commission turnover proved her point that the city’s chief executive should not have that much authority. “What we’re seeing is just a preview of the future,” she said.

With the commission in turmoil, some insiders say the administration is playing for time. On July 1, one of the three remaining commissioners reaches the end of his term. That will give Riordan three vacancies to fill on a five-member commission, virtually assuring that he would prevail but only after seeing his handpicked board decimated over the issue.

So fast have the resignations come in recent days that some City Hall insiders were comparing the events to the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre” in which a series of top Nixon administration aides resigned or were fired rather than carry out the orders of the embattled president.

Compounding the problems for the Riordan administration have been a number of other high-profile commission departures this week.

Arkatov resigned on Monday. Then, on Tuesday, Police Commission President Edith Perez said she was stepping down. She left after years in which she occasionally earned Riordan’s praise, but also clashed with some of his top advisors.

On Wednesday, Emerson was just one of three more commissioners who headed for the door. Steve Afriat, who serves as president of the Animal Regulation Commission and who ran the unsuccessful campaign to defeat the Riordan-backed charter reform measure, said he was leaving the presidency next month and will depart the commission in September.

“I’m just tired of it,” he said of the commission position. He denied that there was pressure on him to leave, although a source close to the mayor emphasized that his resignation was considered an honorable move, given his public role in fighting the new charter.

Also Wednesday, Riordan advisors said Public Works Commissioner M.E. “Red” Martinez, whose term is up at the end of the month, will not be given another stint in that post. News of that caused a splash at City Hall, in part because the Public Works posts, unlike those on other commissions, are powerful, full-time jobs that pay about $90,000 a year, making them more coveted than most commission seats. In addition, Martinez is well-liked by organized labor and its allies on the council, some of whom accused Riordan of forcing Martinez out to punish him for labor’s unwillingness to back the proposed charter this month.

“They can dress it up and put a bow on it, but this is retaliation,” said Goldberg. “I think it’s crummy.”

Despite outcry from Goldberg and others, Riordan moved ahead to replace Martinez, nominating Woody Fleming, an aide to Councilwoman Rita Walters and former member of the elected charter reform commission, to fill the vacancy.

Deputy Mayor Noelia Rodriguez downplayed the significance of the changes. Commission turnover is common near the end of every fiscal year, when terms typically end, she said. The only reason this year’s are attracting more attention than normal, according to Rodriguez, is that the recently passed charter has focused attention on appointments and removals even though those provisions have not yet taken effect.

“Every year, it’s a ho-hum,” Rodriguez said of the turnover. “This year, it’s a hmmmmm.”