LOS ANGELES — One day after voters soundly rejected a proposal to raise the city’s sales tax by half a cent, the city’s chief budget officer said officials have begun looking at new ways to cut the city’s budget.

“Everything has to be put back on the table, from the size of the police force to the restoration of fire services to the paving of our streets,” said Miguel Santana, who added that he hopes to have budget-cut options for council members to consider before the week is out.

“What the voters have said is … they are expecting us to solve 100% of the problem now, without new revenue,” Santana said.

Measure A, which would have raised Los Angeles’ sales tax to 9.5%, one of the highest in the state, was opposed by 55% of the voters.

Glen Walker reports.

LOS ANGELES — City Councilman Eric Garcetti edged past Controller Wendy Greuel in Tuesday’s primary election, emerging as the top vote-getter in one of the lowest turnouts in memory, moving the race to a May runoff between the City Hall veterans.

Garcetti received 33% in an unofficial count of ballots, compared with 29% for Greuel, a four-point advantage that Garcetti said he would immediately build upon in a dash to the May 21 general election.

“I’m ready to get up as early as it takes,” Garcetti told cheering supporters gathered at Avalon nightclub in Hollywood late Tuesday as the primary results became clear. “Tomorrow we’re going to get up, we’re going to get to work, and we’re going to win this campaign.”

Greuel wasn’t conceding anything, telling her own supporters that she would emerge victorious by focusing on a plan for delivering core services that have been lacking, such as fixing Los Angeles streets and reducing emergency response times.

She also hit a campaign theme that is sure to take prominence in the weeks ahead.

“We’re 11 weeks from making history, electing the first woman mayor,” Greuel said. “And, of course, the first mom.”

On Wednesday, the Service Employees International Union 721, which represents 10,000 city workers, endorsed Greuel.

The union did not endorse a candidate in Tuesday’s election. She is already supported by the union representing Department of Water and Power workers.

Turnout of the 1.8 million registered voters in the city was an anemic 16%, far below the 34% seen when Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa won office in 2005.

Election officials, however, said that uncounted mail-in ballots may boost turnout and change vote totals in the days ahead.

Los Angeles voters elected three new City Council members and returned two incumbents to office.

Candidates in three other council races did not get at least 50% of the vote, and the top two finishers in those contests will face off in May.

In the city attorney’s race, former Assemblyman Mike Feuer led incumbent City Atty. Carmen Trutanich with 44% of the vote, not enough to win outright.

And the controller’s race moves to a matchup between City Councilman Dennis Zine and Ron Galperin, a lawyer and city commissioner, with each taking 37% of the vote.

Angelenos turned down Proposition A, a half-cent sales tax hike, with 55% voting against it and 45% in favor.

Finding ways to close the city’s chronic budget shortfalls without the revenue, estimated at $1 billion over the next five years, is sure to dominate the mayoral and council campaigning that remains.

Former Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield won 52% of the vote to win the 3rd district seat representing Reseda, Canoga Park and Woodland Hills.

On the opposite side of the San Fernando Valley, former Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes squeaked past three challengers with 51% of the vote to win the 7th district seat representing Arleta, Pacoima and Sunland-Tujunga.

In the 11th district, Mike Bonin, longtime chief of staff to outgoing Councilman Bill Rosendahl, easily beat out his competitors with 61% of the vote.

Two City Council incumbents, Paul Koretz and Joe Buscaino, easily won reelection.

Three City Council races remain undecided. In the 1st district, former California Sen. Gil Cedillo, with 49% of the vote, will face off with Jose Gardea, outgoing Councilman Ed Reyes’ chief deputy.

In the 9th district being vacated by Councilwoman Jan Perry, State Sen. Curren Price captured 27% of the vote and will face Ana Cubas, who received 24%, in May.

The most competitive council race was the free for all in the 13th district, representing the Hollywood and Silverlake areas.

Mitch O’Farrell, a senior advisor to the outgoing Garcetti, was the top vote getter with 18%. He advances to the runoff against John Choi, who formerly sat on the city’s Board of Public Works. Choi polled 16% of the vote.

In the Los Angeles Unified School District board races, Monica Garcia and Steve Zimmer won election to two seats and a third, district No. 6, moves to a runoff between Antonio Sanchez, an educator, and teacher Monica Ratliff.

Mike Eng easily won election to the Los Angeles Community College District board, with 64% of the vote, as did Ernest Moreno with 67%.

A third college board seat moves to a runoff between David Vela and Nancy Pearlman.

As with most elections, the ballots still to be tallied consist of vote-by-mail ballots, including some that were turned in on election day, as well as provisional and damaged ballots.

Still, Garcetti and Greuel hold seemingly insurmountable leads over the next closest finishers — attorney Kevin James and Councilwoman Jan Perry — who appeared to be in a dead heat for third place, the vote count showed.

Emanuel Pleitez on Tuesday night conceded defeat as early returns showed he was capturing just a sliver of the vote.

-Los Angeles Times

Sara Welch is live with Wendy Greuel’s supporters as they gather for election night festivities.

Mary Beth McDade is live as the Garcetti campaign awaits the latest results in the race for L.A. Mayor.

Mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel cast her ballot just 30 minutes after the polls opened for today’s municipal elections.

Outside the polling place, she admitted to both excitement and nerves as Los Angeles voters go to the polls today to decide who will be the next mayor of Los Angeles.

“Please go out and vote,” she said.

“It’s important to your everyday life … and this is your civic duty and responsibility.”

Sara Welch has more.

L.A. mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti says he’s ready to launch the next phase of the campaign — his expected runoff with City Controller Wendy Greuel.

The former City Council president was locked in a tight race with Greuel.

If no candidate breaks 50%, the top two vote-getters will enter a May runoff.

Mary Beth McDade has more.

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) — Los Angeles’ mayoral primary is just hours away, and the candidates are making a last-minute push for votes.

They spent the final hours of the campaign crisscrossing Los Angeles.

Wendy Greuel visiting voters on Monday morning at the wholesale produce mart.

“The only people I’m beholden to are the people of Los Angeles,” Greuel said.

Not so if you ask candidate Eric Garcetti, who campaigned along the Expo Line and met with members of the longshoremen’s union.

“They want leadership that’s independent, that isn’t bought and paid,” Garcetti insisted.

Down to the wire — it’s a horse race for Greuel and Garcetti. The latest USC/Los Angeles Times poll has the two contenders neck and neck.

The poll shows Garcetti, the former City Council president with 27 percent, and Greuel the city controller, with 25 percent.

Trailing behind are the sole Republican, conservative talk show host Kevin James and Councilwoman Jan Perry, followed by former technology executive Emanuel Pleitez.

Greuel may have the backing of the IBEW union that represents the city’s DWP workers.

But Garcetti has name recognition — his father a former district attorney.

But according  to the Times poll, no candidate has managed to garner the support of the big voter groups that can swing an election.

The race to replace Mayor Villaraigosa has been nasty at times.

TV and radio attack ads could trigger late shifts in public opinion.

Fourteen percent of likely voters hadn’t yet picked a candidate and of those who had nearly half said they might still change their minds.

Voter turnout is expected to be low. The polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning.

–Sara Welch, KTLA News

LOS ANGELES Los Angeles mayoral hopeful Wendy Greuel traded barbs with rivals Eric Garcetti and Jan Perry on Sunday as the leading candidates dashed around the city in a final burst of weekend campaigning, from Encino and Eagle Rock to Venice Beach and South Los Angeles.

The top contenders to succeed Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sought to shore up support with morning visits to churches and afternoon stops at a taco stand, farmer’s market and art gallery.

With the election just two days away, acrimony erupted anew between Greuel, the city controller, and the two City Council members she sees as her most formidable opponents, Garcetti and Perry.

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles mayoral hopeful Wendy Greuel traded barbs with rivals Eric Garcetti and Jan Perry on Sunday as the leading candidates dashed around the city in a final burst of weekend campaigning, from Encino and Eagle Rock to Venice Beach and South Los Angeles.

The top contenders to succeed Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sought to shore up support with morning visits to churches and afternoon stops at a taco stand, farmer’s market and art gallery.

With the election just two days away, acrimony erupted anew between Greuel, the city controller, and the two City Council members she sees as her most formidable opponents, Garcetti and Perry.

Perry released an open letter from a dozen women saying they were angry and disappointed by Greuel’s “morally reprehensible attacks” on Perry over her personal bankruptcy filing in the 1990s.

“Wendy we expected much better from you,” they wrote. “As a woman and mother you should know that there are certain lines you simply do not cross.”

The group, which included former state Assemblywoman Gwen Moore and local Democratic club leaders, was denouncing, among other things, a Greuel mailer detailing Perry’s personal “financial mismanagement.”

It tells voters: “Don’t Let Her Bankrupt L.A.”

Perry and her ex-husband, Douglas Galanter, have blamed their financial troubles of the 1990s on the failure of his law practice.

At a campaign stop in Pacoima on Sunday, Greuel voiced no regret for highlighting Perry’s bankruptcy, saying the mayor was responsible for a $7-billion budget.

“It’s for the voters to decide if that plays into their decision-making,” Greuel said.

Earlier, during a visit with volunteers at her South L.A. office in Hyde Park, Greuel renewed her attack on Garcetti over his financial stake in potential oil and gas drilling in Beverly Hills.

Garcetti and several family members authorized a lease with Venoco Inc. for drilling rights beneath a Wilshire Boulevard retail property that the councilman co-owns through a personal trust.

The company’s oil extraction operations involving other properties, via a site at Beverly Hills High School, have drawn criticism from some alumni, residents and environmentalists.

In an interview, Greuel called the matter “a very serious issue” that voters should keep in mind about Garcetti, whose supporters include the Sierra Club.

“If you don’t believe that you’re ever going to drill for oil, if you don’t believe it’s going to make you money, then why not terminate the lease?” she asked.

Garcetti, on a stop at Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles on West Pico Boulevard, declined to respond to that question or to Greuel’s suggestion that he had ignored audits by the controller’s office calling on the city to take action against wasteful spending at the Department of Water and Power.

“This is just a distraction from two facts — that Ms. Greuel’s audits of the DWP have turned up zero dollars, and that as a reward, she’s gotten more than $1.7 million from the DWP union,” he said.

“I think there’s a clear choice in this race between myself, a candidate who has independence, and one who is beholden to special interests. This money wouldn’t be behind her, and she wouldn’t be lobbing these grenades, if she didn’t feel something is wrong in her campaign.”

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, a union that represents more than 8,600 DWP workers, is the main force behind Working Californians, an independent committee that has spent $2 million on Greuel’s behalf.

A USC Price/Los Angeles Times poll taken last week found Garcetti and Greuel effectively tied heading into Tuesday’s primary.

If they finish first and second, they will face off in a May 21 primary. The survey found Garcetti at 27%, Greuel at 25%, lawyer Kevin James at 15%, Perry with 14% and former Villaraigosa aide Emanuel Pleitez at 5%, with 14% undecided.

James had a lighter day than his rivals, making just one campaign stop at Vermont Kitchen and Bar in Los Feliz and another at his headquarters.

Pleitez, the most exuberant in the field, raced from Westchester to Watts on the fifth day of his trek biking and running around the city. He plans to finish Monday in San Pedro.

Greuel, Garcetti and Perry each crisscrossed the city, but by car, crossing paths Sunday at black churches in South L.A.

Perry, who is African American, invoked President Obama as she appeared with City Councilman Bernard C. Parks and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) at Holman United Methodist Church in West Adams.

“I beseech you, turn out like you turned out for Obama,” Perry told worshipers. “If you do that, you will deliver me.”

At St. James AME Church in Vermont-Slauson, Garcetti reminded the congregation that he had served as Southern California chairman of Obama’s first presidential campaign.

Greuel, too, mentioned Obama, saying that it was “good karma” that her Crenshaw Boulevard campaign office used to be local headquarters for the president’s reelection campaign.

But so far, the mayoral race has captivated few of the city’s 1.8 million voters, as Greuel was reminded at one of her church stops.

“The woman in church behind me this morning was like, ‘You look familiar, who are you?’” Greuel said.

-Los Angeles Times