New Constituents Point Out Problem : Wachs Seeks to Rid Streets of Abandoned Cars

Standing among several abandoned cars on a dead-end street in Sun Valley on Monday, Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs continued to plant his feet on new territory.

Wachs, whose district recently was altered to include Sun Valley, said he and Councilman Ernani Bernardi will propose today the formation of a public-private task force to try to alleviate the “intolerable blight” caused by abandoned vehicles.

“Is this amazing?” Wachs said, motioning to three metal hulks that flanked him. In all, 11 stripped cars languished in the dead-end industrial area where Tujunga Avenue meets the Golden State Freeway. Debris strewn on the street included empty bottles, old shoes and five live .22-caliber bullets.

Wachs was reluctant to handle the bullets, but he said he was ready to address what he called “a major concern” of his new constituents. In a bitterly contested redistricting fight that ended last month, the northeast San Fernando Valley area formerly represented by the late Councilman Howard Finn was split between Wachs and Bernardi.

“My job, really, is to move in a very short time and establish a rapport with my constituents and find out what their problems are,” Wachs said.

In a series of informal meetings Wachs has held since the redistricting, residents and homeowner groups in the northeast Valley have complained to Wachs about concerns such as crime, airport noise and development.

Recent neighborhood tours with homeowner groups made Wachs aware of the abandoned cars, which he said is a citywide problem. Last year, about 25,000 cars were removed from Los Angeles streets at a cost of about $650,000, he said.

“We have a tremendous number of complaints,” said Lela Baker, a supervisor in the parking enforcement section of the city Department of Transportation. “It snows us.”

The City Council motion to be introduced today would bring together junk handlers and city, county and state officials to present recommendations within 60 days of the formation of the task force, Wachs said.

Near the abandoned cars stood a sign warning of a maximum $500 fine and six-month jail term for littering, but Wachs said misdemeanor criminal prosecution of such crimes is low on the city’s list of priorities.

Most of the cars are thought to be dumped not by thieves but by people who can’t get rid of their old cars, he said.

Wachs had no specific recommendations on Monday, but according to several junk handlers, auto shredders and towing companies contacted by The Times, the problem is a complicated one.

To sell a car to a junk dealer, a person must first get a certificate from the state Department of Motor Vehicles. A foreman at Valley Junk Co. said his company’s price for junk cars, $25 a ton, is often not enough to persuade car owners to wait in line at state offices. Instead, he said, the owners dump the cars on the street, sometimes in front of the junk yards.

Junk dealers, who strip cars of usable parts, offer low prices to car owners because of the high cost auto shredders pay to dispose of waste materials such as certain petrochemicals and heavy metals like lead, said Paul Psik, owner of A-1 Scrap in Sun Valley.