Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa Is Broke, Doesn’t Own A Home or A Car [Report]
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Vaillaraigosa is said to be flat broke, has no job waiting for him, and will soon be homeless once he moves out of the mayor’s official residence, the Getty House.
The mayor leaves office on June 30 because of term limits that precluded him for running for re-election after being the city’s chief executive for eight years. Fellow Democrat Eric Garcetti was elected mayor on May 21 and will take office on July 1.
Villaraigosa, whose controversial personal life was well publicized, has serious cash flow issues according to LA Weekly as a result of departing the public payroll: “When Villaraigosa’s mayoral run ends June 30 due to term limits, he could use not just a job but one that affords him the multimillionaire lifestyle to which he’s become accustomed as a flamboyant public servant …Close associates and City Hall insiders, on and off the record, concur that Villaraigosa, the second-highest-paid mayor in the country, at $232,735 a year, is broke — and has next to nothing lined up.”
The career politician was reportedly angling for a job with the Obama administration, but his personal baggage — which included partying with Charlie Sheen — apparently put the kibosh on any Washington position.
The soon-to-be-former mayor evidently earned about $1.6 million while in office, most of which “has gone to his ex-wife and children in alimony and child support. He has risen to the one percent, in practice if not in fact, by relying heavily on other people’s money.”
Responding to the report that he is broke, Mayor Villaraigosa said “You notice, there weren’t many facts in it or many quoted sources … all it is is just chatter.” He wants to hook up with a think tank or university — neither of which requires any heavy lifting — and apparently also has ambitions to run for governor.
Villaraigosa is a law school graduate but is unable to pursue a legal career because he failed the bar exam four times.
A separate report from the LA Weekly suggested that mayor engaged mostly in self-promotion or ceremonial functions rather than actually buckling down and trying to solve the problems facing Los Angeles: ” … the mayor spends most of his working day flying in and out of town, holding staged press conferences, attending banquets, ceremonies and parties, raising political money and providing face time to high-powered special interest groups in a position to help his political advancement.”
