Los Angeles City Attorney Race Bores In on Oil Drilling

Los Angeles city attorney candidate Murray Kane, through a combination of legal attacks, news conferences and a $110,000 television ad campaign, has endeared himself to opponents of Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s drilling plans by vowing to halt the controversial Pacific Palisades project if he is elected.

Kane, in recent weeks, has used the oil drilling issue to attack his two principal opponents, Lisa Specht and James Hahn, who, ironically, share his basic views on the controversial drilling project. Kane’s aggressiveness in fighting the drilling is being cited by Pacifc Palisades homeowners as evidence that he would be a better friend in City Hall than his rivals.

The opponents of Occidental concede that Kane’s chances of carrying out his pledge to block the oil drilling are slim because of legal uncertainties.

See Only Lip Service

But, in interviews, leaders of No Oil Inc., the main anti-drilling group, said that Kane’s firm stand contrasts with what they consider to be lip service paid to the issue by Hahn and Specht.

Hahn, the consensus front-runner, said, “I just don’t think it’s a burning issue in the campaign,” adding that the dispute will probably be resolved in the courts.

Kane said that if elected, he will try to halt drilling in the Palisades by refusing to sign key agreements between Occidental and the city. Those agreements are needed to implement the permission to drill given by the City Council and Mayor Tom Bradley last month.

Whether he could do that is uncertain. Acting City Atty. Gary Netzer said that a majority of the council could change the law to lessen the city attorney’s role in completing agreements, taking away his power to block them.

The dispute has great political implications.

Kane has attacked Hahn, saying that he has received campaign funds from Occidental, but his main target has been Specht. Both Specht and Kane agree that Hahn is the leader in the five-candidate race and are battling not only for second place, but also to force the controller into a runoff election.

Westside Support

Kane is trying to attract support from some of the voters who normally would back Specht, an attorney who entered the race claiming strong support from the liberal Westside of Los Angeles, where opposition to oil drilling has been intense.

As the race developed, Kane has called attention to Specht’s partnership in the politically active law firm of Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Tunney. The Manatt firm represented Occidental in its fight for creation of the oil drilling district, making Specht vulnerable to attacks by Kane and other opponents of the project, although Specht had no direct role in the negotiations.

There are signs that Kane’s attacks are hurting Specht. On Wednesday, Specht issued a detailed denial of a Kane statement that she would have to disqualify herself from handling any litigation involving Occidental because of her association with the Manatt firm.

She said, however, that one option she might exercise is to disqualify herself “and have the deputy in charge of the civil department handle it. . . . “

Researched Question

Specht said her campaign staff researched the conflict-of-interest question in response to press inquiries, but several leading opponents of the Pacific Palisades drilling project said they have been dissatisfied with Specht’s stand on the issue and have told her that they believe that she would be unable to actively oppose Occidental if she is elected.

One prominent opponent of drilling, attorney Roger Diamond, has withdrawn his endorsement of Specht and said he is inclined to support Kane.

“It certainly would be better for the Palisades to have an attorney like Murray Kane in there,” said Diamond, who represents anti-drilling interests in two lawsuits against the city. “We’re better off with him than with anybody else I can see.”

Diamond added that when he withdrew his endorsement, Specht “told me that she was personally opposed to the project, but because of her present position with the firm, she could not make it a campaign issue.” Specht said she told Diamond of her opposition but denied telling the attorney she could not speak out on it because of her position with the Manatt law firm.

“(Diamond) said Kane was making it an issue and asked if I was going to make it an issue. . . . I told him that crime was the issue in the race,” Specht said.

‘Has No Power’

Specht charged that Kane “in fact has no power to stop the drilling, and what he’s doing is raising people’s hopes for his own political gain. Mr. Kane is apparently starting out the campaign desperate, and I think the voters will see it for what it is.”

Kane, standing outside the Manatt law offices, launched his campaign against the Occidental Petroleum project on Jan. 23, making a blanket statement, “There will be no oil drilling in the Pacific Palisades when I am city attorney.” But Kane, at the same time, has been careful to withhold judgment on the “environmental merits of whether there should be oil drilling or not.”

Kane bases his opposition on what he calls the unstable area around the drilling site, saying that the city would be exposing itself to “millions of dollars” in liability if a disaster occurs. Kane said that, despite provisions in the Occidental agreement making the oil company responsible for all damages resulting from the drilling project, as city attorney he would never be satisfied that the city would be fully protected.

In pushing his attack, Kane launched a two-week television ad campaign on Wednesday night that includes one 30-second spot showing Kane, in a business suit, walking on the beach in Pacific Palisades and telling viewers that “under the law, the city attorney can stop Oxy’s (Occidental’s) drilling. As city attorney, I will.”