L.A. voters' opinion of Mayor Garcetti isn't formed yet, poll finds Mayor Eric Garcetti benefits from a deep reservoir of goodwill among Los Angeles voters as he marks his 100th day in office Tuesday, but most say they still know too little about him to form a distinct impression, according to a new Pat Brown Institute/Cal State L.A. poll. The survey of 501 registered voters found that 56% approved of the way Garcetti has handled his job, 11% disapproved, and 33% could not say one way or the other. "The voters do not yet know him well, but they seem to be giving him a strong opening to become successful," said poll director Raphael Sonenshein, the institute's executive director. Asked whether their impression of Garcetti was favorable or unfavorable, more than half of the voters surveyed said they hadn't heard enough to form an opinion. But their No. 1 priority, the economy and jobs, was the same as his. Voters were split almost evenly on whether things in L.A. were moving in the right direction or on the wrong track. San Fernando Valley voters were less content than voters in the rest of the city. Just 37% of the Valley voters said things were headed in the right direction. Citywide, conservatives were the least satisfied group: Barely 1 in 4 said L.A. was on the right track. The survey suggested that Garcetti is facing a skeptical audience with his promise to improve the city's delivery of basic services. Offered a choice of two assertions, 63% agreed with the statement that "city government mostly pays attention to special interests and not to people like me," while 25% agreed instead that "people like me are able to influence what city government does." Some did not pick either statement. Garcetti also appears to be running against the tide of local customs by setting up mayoral "help desks" for constituents as part of his plan to make the city more user friendly. When voters need a problem solved in their neighborhood, the poll found, they are most likely to turn to their City Council member for help; fewer than 1 in 10 said they would seek assistance from the mayor's office. Garcetti, a former councilman, is "fighting a head wind of what people normally do," Sonenshein said. The Los Angeles Police Department won favorable marks for the way it's doing its job: Of the voters surveyed, 65% approved and 30% disapproved. African American voters, however, were less enthusiastic; the poll found them almost evenly divided on the LAPD's performance. The Department of Water and Power was seen less favorably than the LAPD, with 55% approving of its job performance and 38% disapproving. But Garcetti's handling of contract talks with the main union for DWP workers appeared to escape notice of most L.A. voters. Nearly 4 in 5 said they hadn't heard enough about it to form an opinion. The survey, under the direction of pollster Susan Pinkus, was taken by phone Wednesday through Saturday. The margin of potential sampling error was 4 percentage points in either direction for the full voter group and larger for subgroups.