Keith Richman was my assemblyman and my friend. He was a passionate man. His passions focused on health care — both as a physician and the head of a health care provider service — and for his desire to see a healthy California through a government that worked for the people.
Richman was not afraid to take on fights to achieve his goals whether it was against the powerful public employee unions who opposed his pension reforms or members of his own Republican Party who objected to his budget votes.
Anchoring the you-could-fit-‘em-in-a-broom-closet Moderate Caucus with Northern California Democrat, Joe Canciamilla, the Southern California Republican did his best to find common ground solutions to California’s problems.That’s not to say that Richman wasn’t a revolutionary in his own way. I served as a policy consultant to him as a leader in the effort to separate the San Fernando Valley from the City of Los Angeles. His policy proposals in his quest to become the first mayor of the San Fernando Valley were common sense, thoughtful approaches to the issues of the day.
Richman collected the most votes on Election Day to win the mayor’s post, however, he was a captain without a ship, for the voters outside the valley defeated the secession measure. The entire city had to approve breaking off the valley from the city.
Despite the criticism he took for his position on taxes and the budget at times, Richman conscientiously believed in fiscal prudence. We first met over a cup of coffee when he sought support for his Assembly run over ten years ago and he stressed his fiscal outlook.
He once asked me to advise his parents, living in Hawaii, about a brewing property tax revolt there.
And, of course, he was a pioneer in his efforts to deal with pension reform well before it became the center of the public policy debate. His proposed 2005 initiative to reduce public sector pensions ran into stiff opposition, as expected, from the public unions. The measure was battered by the charge that pensions would be denied the widows of fallen public safety officers. That was not Richman’s intention, and he believed it was not a true effect of the measure, but we talked on a number of occasions about the political power of that charge. Richman decided not to move forward on pension reform at that time.
However, he did not surrender. He planned to fight another day. Richman knew the public pensions issue would have to be faced to set California on a strong fiscal path. To that end, he founded the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, which has established itself as the premier go-to organization on pension reform.
Richman was also an early supporter of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The actor and would be governor made one of his first "political" appearances at a Richman fund raising event in the sold-out ballroom at the Odyssey Restaurant in Granada Hills, when Schwarzenegger’s interest in public office was little more than a mild rumor.
Following that event, Richman often visited with Schwarzenegger advising him on the workings in Sacramento and the problems California government had to overcome.
To me, Richman was a model citizen-politician who served his community and the public well. While his political career was dotted with frustrations in improving the condition of his city and state, I will remember him for his passion and his dreams of trying to make government work – and, in that spirit, consider him the one and only Mayor of the San Fernando Valley.