Multi-Alarm "Political Fire" Ignited by Mayor and Firefighters Union

"Is this Firefighters Union mailer offensive ??"

Antonio Villaraigosa vs. a McOsker redux ??

This time it is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa vs. Pat McOsker, President of United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, as both are the respective front persons in a contentious contract battle.

Both men are engage in a duel reminisces of some of the Villaraigosa vs. McOskers battles (Pat brother Tim was Mayor Hahn's Chief of Staff), during the 2005 Mayoral Campaign. This time the antagonists are fanning the flames of a "contract conflagration" that threatens a new workplace agreement for the city's firefighters.

McOsker enlisted an sharp, angry retort today from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa over the above mailer which was sent to selected households. As the Los Angeles Times reports this evening, "Those kinds of tactics are absolutely unacceptable. They do a disservice to the people . . . who died in Metrolink," Villaraigosa said. "They do a disservice to the brave men and women of the Los Angeles Fire Department who risked their lives."

McOsker gave this detailed response to the Mayor's comments.

"Our fliers are entirely accurate," he said.

McOsker said Villaraigosa did not raise any objections when Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills used a similar image from the crash to lobby for the approval of a new patient wing (** BTW, guess who was the attorney for Providence Hospital ?? Tim McOsker.). Villaraigosa countered that, unlike the hospital piece, the union mailer used a picture with "body parts strewn on the ground.

"That comment apparently was a reference to a red-stained sheet in the photograph that, according to the mayor's office, covered the body of a Metrolink engineer who died. The mayor's office magnified that image by about 400% and handed out copies to the media Friday.

Hours later, Councilwoman Janice Hahn said she did not know that a tiny white rectangle in the photograph was a body until Villaraigosa brought it up. Hahn, who has criticized the Fire Department cuts, said she saw nothing outrageous in the mailer. "What's outrageous is that we as a city cannot . . . keep the level of services from our Fire Department that the public expects," she said.

If these contract negotiations are any indication, then one can make the observation that political skirmishes such as this, will be common place in Mayor Villaraigosa's second term. And some past antagonists may resume their political dueling.

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