Antonovich Is Mayor by Acclamation--His Own

It seems to happen every four years, a bizarre event rooted in our democracy’s unique attributes and incomprehensible to the outside world.

The presidential election?

No, it is Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s declaration that he is the mayor of Los Angeles County.

It happened formally Tuesday, when Antonovich assumed the Board of Supervisors’ ceremonial chairmanship.

All county departments have been instructed to refer to Antonovich, not as chairman, but as “mayor” on all proposals and stationery. The board’s agendas identify him as mayor. So does the repainted door to his office.

In 1996, Antonovich pushed through a change in county law to make the board’s chairman the county’s “mayor,” though all the chairman does is attend ceremonial affairs, manage the supervisors’ weekly meeting and appear to pay attention to speakers at the board’s public meetings, while other supervisors kibitz or eat lunch.

The chairmanship rotates annually, and the name change to mayor confers no extra power or perks. But Antonovich does not shy away from ceremonial trappings.

This is the official who presents a stray pet for adoption at the start of every board meeting and who this year alone handed county honor scrolls to both the Boogie Woogie Mamas and a Canadian Elvis impersonator.

Antonovich in an interview said the idea of a county mayor makes perfect sense. The Board of Supervisors is a murky entity, but call someone a mayor and out-of-town bureaucrats and officials understand that the board represents millions of constituents and operates major agencies such as the county’s health department, he said.

The supervisor said he does not know why his colleagues do not use the title when they are chairmen.

“I will venture that, in the future, more will begin using that title,” Antonovich said.

That didn’t seem probable, based on the quips at Tuesday’s meeting.

Supervisor Gloria Molina formally handed the chair over to Antonovich, but not before launching into a lighthearted version of “ ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” rewritten for a county audience (meaning that the property tax redistribution line got the biggest laugh):

‘Twas the day of transition and

all through the Hall

The board family was scurrying,

Mike Antonovich most of all.

To be chair of this fivesome is not

all that scary;

But Mike--to be mayor . . . is o’

quite contrary.

Antonovich spoke of the challenges ahead of the supervisors, such as improving the adoptions operation and dealing with a looming health department deficit. Then it was time to designate the chairman pro tem of the board, whom Antonovich referred to as “mayor pro tem.”

This year the post rotates to Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who earlier this year declined to run for mayor of the city of Los Angeles.

“Is this why you didn’t run for mayor, so you’d be mayor pro tem?” Supervisor Don Knabe cracked.

Yaroslavsky has his own long history with the word “mayor.” He has twice declined to run for the city position by that name. He has also pushed for the creation of an actual countywide mayor with administrative power but opposed adoption of the ceremonial mayor’s post.

Yaroslavsky said he would be known simply as chair pro tem.

But the county seemed to accept Antonovich’s mayoralty readily. Not only did colleagues address him at the meeting as “Mr. Mayor,” but so did the public speakers who berated the board over Marina del Rey redevelopment.