Council Bids Goldberg Farewell as She Moves On to Assembly

Los Angeles city officials said farewell Friday to Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, toasting the assemblywoman-elect for her 7 1/2 years on the city’s governing body.

Although colleagues said they didn’t always agree with Goldberg, they said they respected her dedication to causes such as a living wage for city workers and opposition to Mayor Richard Riordan’s efforts to expand the Police Department.

“What I like about you is you are not a rubber stamp,” Councilman Nate Holden told Goldberg. “You vote your conscience, right or wrong.”

Riordan made a rare appearance in the council chambers to wish Goldberg well. The liberal Democrat starts her new job Monday representing the 45th District, which stretches from Hollywood to East Los Angeles.

“This has been an experience I will never forget,” Goldberg said of her years representing the Hollywood, Silver Lake and Echo Park areas. “I just feel very proud of having had the opportunity to serve.”

She has been a driving force in projects that have begun a revitalization of Hollywood.

Holding back tears, she told her staff: “It is really a traumatic experience to think about not coming to work and being able to work with this group of people every day.”

Goldberg, who was prevented from running for the council again by term limits, was elected in November to fill the seat held by outgoing Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa, who is running for mayor.

“I feel very sad today,” Goldberg said. “There are things that I still wanted to do. This is a complicated job, and [7 1/2] years is just not enough.”

Unless the council appoints someone to fill the seat for the seven months remaining in her term, it will be held by a nonvoting representative from the city’s chief legislative analyst’s office.

Goldberg had urged her colleagues to appoint her chief of staff, Sharon Delugach, to the job. But she has received a chilly response from the majority of the council.

Eight people are running for Goldberg’s seat. Among them are Goldberg’s brother, Arthur, former Councilman Mike Woo and Assemblyman Scott Wildman.

Goldberg was elected to the council in 1993, after serving as president of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education and as a teacher in Compton.

“After the eight years I spent on the school board, this was like a vacation,” she told council members and dozens of well-wishers. “That’s a job that pays nothing, has no staff and has, for each board member, a half-million constituents.”

She told her colleagues that she was sorry for sometimes being “too bold, too in your face.” But she added: “I don’t apologize for my passion one bit, or for my point of view.”

Council President John Ferraro told Goldberg she has served the city well.

“I’ve known Jackie long before she became a council member,” Ferraro said. “The first time I met her, I was with some of my staff and when she left I said, ‘There’s one smart lady.’ I’ve never forgotten that and she’s never disappointed me.”