Bicoastal Mensch

Joel Wachs, former 2nd District city councilman, is now in New York serving as president of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in Manhattan. But he keeps his Valley home and still comes to visit his mother every month, just as he promised.

With the election to pick his successor in the Studio City-to-Sunland seat scheduled for March 5, The Journal caught up with Wachs to reminisce about 30 years of L.A. politics and his new hometown.

Jewish Journal: How do you like your new job at the Warhol Foundation?

Joel Wachs: I’m basically in charge of the business side as well as the program side. It would be hard to imagine a more ideal job for someone like me. I’m very, very lucky to have this job. I didn’t know they had jobs as good as this. I get to do what I love without any of the negative things that you find in politics. For 30 years in politics I had to ask people for money. Now I get to give it away. It’s so different and for a good cause; for something that I believe in and I’m passionate about. I’m working hard but I feel like I’ve been on a long vacation. It’s just great.

JJ: Do you think you’ll get involved in politics in New York?

JW: No, not in the sense that I have been involved in the past. I don’t long for that anymore. My 30 years was an amazing experience, I wouldn’t trade it for a day. I feel an incredible sense of accomplishment, but I moved on to something else now that’s equally exciting and that I like. I really don’t think that much about politics itself, in terms of actually running for office or supporting people who are running for office, that part of it, I’m happy not to ever do again. I don’t ever want to ask another person for money for politics.

JJ: So, are you disillusioned by politics?

JW: No, I’m not disillusioned. I believe very strongly in the political system. I believe strongly in government. I believe strongly in the need for good public officials. Though there are parts of it that I found really distasteful — the need to raise money, the influence of special interests. So it wasn’t a disillusionment, but there was clearly a recognition that with the good came the bad.

JJ: What’s the greatest accomplishment of your political career?

JW:: Hard to single out one. There’s a lot of individual accomplishments I’m proud of. The L.A. Arts Endowment. The first law in the country prohibiting discrimination against people with AIDS. The battle against the $150 million subsidy for the Staples Center. There are a lot of individual achievements that I’m proud of. But more than any single achievement, I really am proud that I did try and I think I did give politics a good name. I mean 30 years and never once was there ever, never once, a hint of scandal or impropriety. That’s an accomplishment in the real world of politics, and I’m very proud of that. I don’t mean to say it bragging, but because it’s the way I wanted to conduct my life, the kind of elected official I wanted people to know me to be.

JJ: Regrets?

JW:: Well, I felt I would have made an excellent mayor. I thought I had a good chance. I regret that I wasn’t able to accomplish that. And I would have liked to have had the opportunity to have been there. I think I would have served the city well. But that didn’t happen and life goes on, and I’ve got something now that in some respects is better. Although, I still wish that I had won that election. I actually am very, very fortunate that I was able to step into something that’s almost the ideal job.

JJ: What’s your advice for new council members?

JW:: To be true to themselves. I mean that’s the biggest lesson; to stick up for what they believe and to fight for it, to not be tempted by all the temptations there are that make people either forget what they’ve said or just give lip service to it. They’re going to have eight years and that’s going to be it. They’re going to have one opportunity to make a contribution to the city and they should use it. They should be single-minded almost in their resolve to be true to what they’ve said and who they are. If they do that, I think most of the people getting elected are talking about the right issues. I hope that they will not only say that at election time, I hope that they remember. I hope they will do that when the lobbyists come calling behind closed doors. I’m optimistic that it’s the new ones who will change the system in that way, much more than the old ones.

JJ: Are you a New Yorker now?

JW:: Well, I mean, yes, and I’m also an Angeleno. I’ve kept my house in Los Angeles, and of course my mother is there; she’s elderly and I go back. I promised her I’d come back every three or four weeks to visit her, and I will. I’ve kept my home in Studio City. So I’m going to go back and forth on a regular basis. But my job is in New York, and I am living here full time and I feel very much a part of this city as well. I actually sort of have the best of both worlds because I have a strong affinity and identity with both cities. I love them both, I really do. I know that sounds funny but I really do. I think the best of all worlds would be to live six months in New York and six months in L.A. And I could pick the six months, too — spring and fall in New York, summer and winter in L.A.