Riordan Set to Announce Appointments to Key Jobs : City Hall: Mayor-elect may reveal some choices for staff and commission posts today, aides say. They promise a fast start to new Administration.

Los Angeles Mayor-elect Richard Riordan and his aides on Tuesday raced the clock to finalize key staff and commission appointments as they put finishing touches on Thursday’s inaugural celebration.

Discussions continued late Tuesday, and were expected to resume early today, on several deputy mayor positions and high-profile commission appointments, with announcements possible in the early afternoon, transition officials said.

Jadine Nielsen, Riordan’s former campaign manager who is now serving as executive director of the transition effort, said the review process for potential commission appointees remained very fluid, and new names still were being added to an earlier list of about 100 under consideration. In all, Riordan has several dozen staff positions to fill and more than 200 commission slots.

Several sources said Nielsen is a leading candidate for deputy mayor to oversee Riordan’s community outreach operation--a post that will be politically important as the incoming mayor seeks to bridge racial and geographic divisions in the city.

Riordan, who has been on a whirlwind schedule of travel, political fence mending and transition meetings since the election, has yet to make a public appearance in South-Central Los Angeles--an area where his vote was weakest and where some City Hall observers say he must work hard to cultivate support.

Nielsen said the mayor-elect has been too busy to visit all areas of the city since the election but will be making the rounds quickly.

Sources said Riordan may also appoint the first openly gay deputy mayor--Michael Keeley, a partner in the mayor-elect’s law firm. Keeley has been politically active in the gay community and specializes in real estate law, but it was not immediately clear what his responsibilities would be.

Another key City Hall adviser to Riordan--possibly as a special consultant--is expected to be UCLA management professor William Ouchi.

Ouchi declined Tuesday to discus the role he will play, although sources say he has been a key architect of a major reorganization of the mayor’s office for Riordan, who has pledged to cut the budget for the office by 20%. The current two deputy mayors are expected to be expanded to five, officials said, overseeing areas such as public safety, economic development, community outreach and key groups of departments.

“The Administration is going to get off to a very fast start,” Ouchi said. “You are not going to see us taking a whole long time to get organized.”

Among the plum appointments Riordan will make are the five full-time members of the city’s Public Works Board--positions that pay more than $74,000 per year and come with a city car and other perks.

Although Riordan cited the board as an example of wasteful spending during the campaign--and pledged to eliminate it--transition sources indicate some politically connected individuals are being considered for the posts.

Among those on a list of candidates for the board are Edward K. Waters, son of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), and Percy Duran, a Latino public works commissioner and ally of Councilman Richard Alatorre, transition officials said. Both Duran and Alatorre were active in organizing Latino support for Riordan’s campaign.

Transition officials declined to comment on possible appointees but stressed that final decisions had not been made and that the lists of candidates for key jobs were still changing.

“The longer it takes for decisions to be made, the more names you get thrown into the hopper,” said attorney Stan Sanders, a Riordan transition team member.

Edward Waters, a political consultant and part-time high school basketball coach, could not be reached for comment. But his appointment could signal an important link for Riordan to South-Central Los Angeles.

Maxine Waters said she was not aware of any discussion of a possible appointment for her son. “I know nothing about it,” she said, adding that her son had spoken recently of taking a coaching position in the East.

The congresswoman and transition officials noted that Edward Waters has many friends among the Democratic activists in Riordan’s camp because he worked with them on the California campaign of President Clinton.

“I think he’s a solid person from the community,” said one key transition official.

Congresswoman Waters had angered some black leaders during the campaign when she declined to endorse Councilman Michael Woo, a liberal Democrat. Some observers said the action indirectly aided Riordan, a Republican. But she said there was no connection between her stand in the election and consideration of her son for an Administration job. “No. No. No,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Riordan transition team will have at least one blueprint for streamlining city permit procedures already in hand when it takes office.

The plan, released by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, is designed to make the city more friendly to builders by reining in fees and speeding project reviews.

Dan Garcia, a member of the chamber and a Riordan adviser, said he expects Riordan to be “very receptive” to the proposals in the eight-page plan.

The plan suggests that the mayor’s office hire a senior official to meet regularly with industry officials and the city bureaucracy to reduce unnecessary delays and regulations.

The plan calls for retraining to change the attitude of city employees toward “assisting good growth, not restricting all growth.”

Discretionary rulings by city officials and fluctuating building fees would be kept to a minimum to enable builders to plan their projects with more certainty. Under the plan, developers and contractors would be able to rely on a single staff person to answer the bulk of their questions and to reach city bureaucrats by phone for quick answers.

“I think the new mayor will have other priorities in the next few days,” Garcia said. “But the impression I have is that his people agreed with the thrust (of the report) and the need to remove extra regulation and paperwork.”