Bradley Voices Opposition to Offshore Oil Drilling in Laguna

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley came to Laguna Beach on Saturday to voice opposition to offshore drilling in Southern California and, in the process, to test the political waters in the one Orange County municipality that gave him a majority in his 1982 gubernatorial race.

Accompanied by the mayor and four other members of the Laguna Beach City Council, Bradley worked both sides of the community’s main shopping thoroughfare, drawing an amiable, laid-back crowd as he stopped at shops to talk with owners about the impact an oil spill might have on the city.

It is a concern held by many in the picturesque ocean resort, especially in view of U.S. Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel’s announced intention to open up many California offshore tracts to oil drilling.

Helen Balsamakis, standing in front of her Renaissance Bakery, said, “We really rely on the tourist trade here in Laguna Beach,” adding that a spill would devastate the local economy.

Bradley agreed, saying: “We’re in the fight of our lives. We have had to make that fight against every secretary of the interior.”

Asked why he had approved a controversial proposal to drill for oil off the Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, Bradley said there were “pages of reasons” justifying that decision. He explained that the Palisades proposal contains “numerous protections” (against oil spills) and asserted that “the hillside will be safer because of the drilling.”

As Bradley walked through Laguna Beach, business owners and employees waited in their doorways to speak with him and Laguna Beach Mayor Bobbie Minkin. Many had been selected in advance by Bradley aides, including Stephen H. Sulkes, head of Bradley’s political exploratory committee, the Committee for California’s Future.

Later, Bradley rode on a tram called “The Village Trolley of the City of Laguna,” which ferried him and Minkin to several parks overlooking the ocean where six tracts, covering 54 square miles, had been designated for offshore drilling according to a compromise worked out by Hodel. That agreement has since been repudiated by the secretary.

Minkin is scheduled to travel to Washington on Monday, along with San Clemente Mayor Robert Limberg, to lobby Congress for a one-year extension of the current moratorium on offshore drilling.

Mary Nichols, a Bradley adviser who specializes in environmental issues, said that although the mayor initially supported the Hodel agreement, he “took a closer look at the deal” before it was abandoned and decided it wasn’t a good one. Some areas, such as Laguna, “should be untouchable” as far as offshore drilling is concerned, said Nichols, who is expected to be appointed as Bradley’s campaign manager in his as-yet-unannounced campaign against Gov. George Deukmejian.

She said that Bradley would make a formal endorsement of the oil-drilling moratorium at a Los Angeles press conference this week.