Underdogs : Lack of Money or Experience Fails to Deter Candidates Who Run Mostly on Anger, Hope

Georgetta Wilmeth is a grandmother who campaigns for the City Council in a camper decorated with American flags, hand-painted signs and National Rifle Assn. stickers.

She never ran for political office before because, she said, her husband “wanted me in the kitchen.” Wilmeth is now widowed.

Jack E. Davis is 6-foot-3, weighs 320 pounds and wears blue jeans and sneakers to candidates’ forums. Explaining why he is running for the City Council, he said, “I don’t have any faith in those bums down there.”

Jerry Hays sold his gas station, moved from Studio City to Tujunga and plunked down $5,000 of his own money to run for City Council. “I spent the last 26 years of my life training for this job,” he said. “Dealing with the public in a service station is about the most basic training you can get.”

Gathered 500 Signatures

They are among the five challengers running against three entrenched San Fernando Valley councilmen in the April 14 Los Angeles election. They gained a spot on the ballot in early February by gathering 500 voters’ signatures and paying a a $300 filing fee.

Three of the five--Davis, Hays and Wilmeth--seek to upset Councilman Joel Wachs. Richard K. Williams II is opposing Councilman Hal Bernson, and Sal Genovese is running against Councilman John Ferraro.

All of the challengers know they are underdogs but insist they are not tilting at windmills. History, however, is not on their side.

Challengers Rarely Win

Only twice in the last 15 years has a council member failed to win reelection. Peggy Stevenson lost to Michael Woo in 1985, and Donald Lorenzen was defeated by Joy Picus in 1977. Picus and Woo won on their second attempts. And each raised money into six figures. The incumbents also had angered large numbers of constituents.

The city’s campaign financing law also has served as a deterrent to a stronger challenge to councilmen. A loophole in the 1985 law allows council members this year to spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars they collected before the measure went into effect on July 1, 1985. Challengers must obey the $500-per-donor limit required by the law; for incumbents, the measure only applies to contributions received after the law became effective.

To compensate for their lack of money, the challengers have had to “work like hell”--to quote Davis--buttonholing voters in front of supermarkets, running from one candidates’ forum to another, and walking precincts.

Wachs Faces Most Opponents

Wachs drew the most opponents, three, in the new 2nd District, created by last year’s council redistricting. The district takes in Sunland-Tujunga, including Shadow Hills and La Tuna Canyon, most of Van Nuys and parts of Mission Hills, North Hollywood, Sepulveda, Studio City and Sun Valley.

He, like the other incumbents, has invoked a Rose Garden strategy of conducting business as usual. This includes appearing in the district as the councilman, dedicating a traffic light or installing the new officers of the chamber of commerce. The incumbents also plan to use their abundant campaign funds for a last-minute, professionally run mail blitz before the election.

Although they say they are taking nothing for granted, none of the incumbents has appeared with opponents. Said Wachs: “I don’t want to give my opponents the benefit of the attention of having me there.”

Jerry Hays appears to be Wachs’ most formidable opponent.

A past president of the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley, Hays had raised about $25,000--more than Wachs’ other two challengers combined, according to campaign statements that covered fund-raising through the end of February.

The latest campaign reports, however, were filed before the Apartment Owners Assn. sent out a newsletter urging 40,000 landlords throughout Los Angeles County to help defeat Wachs, the council’s leading rent-control proponent, by contributing to Hays. Hays opposes rent control.

Hays, 49, ran against Wachs in 1983 in the old 2nd District and finished second in a field of six candidates, with 10% of the vote. Wachs won with 75%.

Hays said he has a better chance this year because he has become better known through his community activities.

Moved to Tujunga

A Los Angeles native, Hays moved to Tujunga to run against Wachs after his Studio City home was cut out of the district during council reapportionment. Hays said that, if he loses, he will move back to Studio City.

At candidates’ forums, Hays has attacked Wachs for accepting large contributions from developers. But he has been unable to cite a specific vote or action Wachs has taken that was improperly influenced by real estate contributions. “My resources are really limited,” he said, “and I don’t have the time and personnel to go research all of these things.”

Opposes No-Smoking Areas

On issues due to come before the council, Hays opposes city funding for building the Metro Rail subway (Wachs has supported funding) and opposes a proposal (co-sponsored by Wachs) to require restaurants to set aside no-smoking areas.

Hays said that, if elected, he will seek to put more police on the street without a tax increase. He said there is sufficient money in the city budget to pay for more police, but he could not identify the sources of funding, nor possible cuts.

Among the programs he would pursue, if elected, are requiring restrooms in gas stations that sell food and reinstituting a requirement for residents to separate recyclable discards from the rest of their garbage.

Jack E. Davis is easy to distinguish from Wachs’ other challengers. He is big and bald and wears blue jeans and sneakers to candidates’ forums. He also is a feisty, sharp-tongued tax fighter.

“I’m running because I’m mad,” he said at a recent candidates’ forum.

“I ignored politics for years,” Davis said. “What got me interested was when I read in 1982 of a guy retiring from the state Franchise Tax Board. He had been drawing a $57,000-a-year salary and was offered a $102,000 pension. I’ve been mad ever since.”

(Some state officials retired on pensions higher than their salaries because of a quirk in state law. The highest pension that a city employee can receive is 70% of his highest salary at retirement, according to an analyst in the city administrative office. The employee’s pension could exceed his salary at retirement because of cost-of-living increases. But that would take 20 or 30 years.)

Worked on Railroad

A divorced father of three, Davis, 63, of Studio City, served as a deckhand in the Navy in the Pacific during World War II. After the war, he worked for Southern Pacific Railroad, where he spent most of career until his retirement earlier this year.

Davis, who answers the phone “Taxpayer,” is an admirer of the late Howard Jarvis. He is a registered independent who says, “I don’t believe either party serves the working man of America.”

He said he decided to run for City Council--his first try for public office--out of disgust with the high salaries, perks and pensions for government officials.

“Wachs has had 16 years in there, and he seems to be unaware of the problem,” Davis said. “He seems to think these outlandish pensions, perks and salaries are all right.”

Davis complained about Wachs’ use of tax funds to send out a recent “pothole certificate” to district voters. The piece of paper entitled them to a free pothole repair.

Davis said that, while campaigning, he ran into one woman who took advantage of Wachs’ offer to get a pothole fixed. “She said, ‘Joel Wachs was the greatest.’ I said, ‘The bum is finally doing his job. The pothole was there for five years. It should have been fixed 4 1/2 years ago.’ ” Most of the district was not represented by Wachs until last September’s reapportionment.

Opposes Studies, Taxes

While campaigning, Davis has been passing out to voters a “position” paper, which says: “If I had my druthers, the City Council would not pass laws . . . spend money other than $15 a week gas allowance and $20 per week expense account, authorize studies of any subject, create debt, raise fees or taxes.” Davis said that, if the council wants to do any of those things, it should first have to get permission from voters.

Davis opposes a proposal now before the council to require restaurant owners to set aside no-smoking areas. “I smoked for 50 years. I quit eight months and 70 pounds back. If I had my druthers, the City Council wouldn’t make any laws. Leave it up to the public.”

He supports rent control and Metro Rail construction.

Asked his position on gun control, he told a candidates’ forum in Sunland-Tujunga: “Keep your guns and keep ‘em oiled.”

Grandmother and homemaker Georgetta Wilmeth is making her first bid for political office.

Wilmeth, 64, is a Romanian immigrant who became an American citizen in 1958. She has lived in Tujunga 24 years. She said that, because she has had to stand in line for free government cheese, she understands the problems of senior citizens living on a fixed income.

“I have always dreamed of being in public office, where I could return the graces this good country has bestowed upon me,” she said. She refuses to accept any campaign contributions.

Unlike Wachs’ other challengers, she has not attacked the incumbent.

“I don’t know the man so I can’t say anything against him,” she said.

‘Go Elsewhere’

On issues before the council, she opposes a proposal to require restaurants to set aside no-smoking areas. “Those people who don’t like the smoke can go somewhere else,” she said.

She also opposes Metro Rail construction and rent control.

She recently told a candidates’ forum sponsored by the Sunland-Tujunga Chamber of Commerce that, if elected, she will the building of any more apartment houses in the semi-rural community. “We don’t want any more apartment buildings in this area,” she said.

Among her campaign planks is providing shelter for the homeless. She proposes to install showers and pitch tents for them in city parks. She said she also believes that every resident with a spare room should take in a homeless person.

Another of her proposals is to have high school students ride around with the police. She believes the ride-alongs will not only keep students out of trouble but provide help to an understaffed police department. She dismissed suggestions that the students would be in danger.

In the 12th District, Richard K. Williams II, assistant dean of student programs and director of campus activities and residential life at California State University, Northridge, is Councilman Hal Bernson’s lone opponent.

The district, which includes Chatsworth, Granada Hills and Northridge, was largely unaffected by council redistricting.

Born in Upland, Williams, 48, received his bachelor’s degree in broadcasting and master’s degree in communications from the University of the Pacific in Stockton. He served on the staff at the University of the Pacific for 12 years, then worked at a small Iowa college for three years before joining CSUN in 1979. He is a bachelor.

A registered Republican, he is making his first try for political office.

Williams said he was encouraged to run for the council by friends living in the district.

He asserted that a lot of residents are upset that “they’re not having as much input as some developers with the councilman’s office. . . . They feel that, when they contact the councilman’s office, they don’t get fair hearing because they’re not part of the ‘in’ group.”

Williams, however, was unable to cite a specific case where Bernson had excluded residents from a decision.

He chided Bernson for failing to act more quickly to stop the proliferation of mini-malls in residential neighborhoods. Bernson sponsored an ordinance limiting development of mini-malls.

“In his campaign literature, he takes credit for putting a halt to that,” Williams said in an interview. “To me, it’s an example of being a day late and $1 short. . . . For three years, this was going on, and, only after he got pressure from constituents, did he do something about it.”

No Position on Landfill

Williams declined to take a stand on the proposed expansion of the Sunshine Canyon landfill above Granada Hills, which Bernson opposes. Williams said he wants to study the alternatives for trash disposal before committing himself.

On another big issue in the district, Williams criticized Bernson’s plan for upgrading the crime-ridden, run-down Bryant Street-Vanalden Avenue area of Northridge. Bernson last December won the approval of City Council and Mayor Tom Bradley for the city to issue $20.8 million and loan another $4.2 million for a developer to buy and fix up 462 apartments in the blighted neighborhood.

Williams said that, under the plan, the developer “will make a lot of money . . . with no guarantee that there is going to be a permanent solution.” Williams said his solution would have been “to enforce the health and safety laws that are on the books.”

On citywide issues scheduled to come before the council, Williams opposes Metro Rail construction (as does Bernson) and supports rent control (opposed by Bernson). Williams supports a proposed law requiring restaurants to set aside no-smoking areas. Bernson said he favors letting restaurants decide whether to restrict smoking, but he believes they should be required to post signs on the outside explaining their policy.

Williams said one of his strongest qualifications for serving on the council is his willingness to listen to people. “I think if politicians were to spend as much time listening as they do talking, we’d be better off.”

In the 4th District, Sal Genovese is running against heavily favored 20-year incumbent John Ferraro.

It is the first time that Ferraro has faced Valley voters in a council election. Because of that, and because slightly more than half of the district is new, Genovese said he believes that Ferraro is vulnerable.

Ferraro, whose voter strength is based in the Wilshire District, picked up Toluca Lake and parts of North Hollywood and Studio City, plus Atwater, Echo Park and Los Feliz in last year’s redistricting. The Valley makes up about a third of the district.

Ferraro Known From Loss

Ferraro, who was reelected in 1983 with 87% of the vote against two opponents, is nonetheless a heavy favorite. He retained his Hancock Park base of political support. He also is widely known to Valley voters from his loss in the 1985 mayoral race. And, although he has waged a low-key campaign so far, he plans to use his sizable campaign fund to conduct a last-minute mail blitz.

Genovese, who has raised about $9,000, contends that he has a chance of winning.

“Even though I’m not well known, and even though John has been around for a long time, people see me,” Genovese said in an interview.

“We’re doing a lot of active campaigning. We’re walking precincts. . . . We’re standing out in front of markets and post offices. We’re letting people see there is another candidate.”

Born in New York City, Genovese, 41, was raised in Los Angeles, graduating from Hollywood High School. He attended California State University, Los Angeles, but he went to work before earning a degree. A Hollywood-area resident, he runs an outpatient treatment program for alcoholism, drug abuse and mental illness.

In his only other foray into politics, he collected less than 1% of the vote in the 1985 mayoral race.

“I just think it’s time for a change,” Genovese said. He contends that the district has deteriorated under Ferraro’s leadership.

‘Complacent, Isolated’

“In 1985, John Ferraro said, ‘After three terms as mayor, a person tends to become complacent and isolated from the people,’ ” Genovese said. “What does he say about a councilman who has served for two decades?”

“I think there’s a difference between being a chief executive of a city and being a legislator,” Ferraro responded in an interview.

On issues scheduled to come before the council, Genovese opposes Metro Rail (as does Ferraro) and supports rent control (as does Ferraro) and a law requiring restaurants to set aside no-smoking areas.

He contends that the city could put more police on the street by eliminating waste in city government. But he was unable to propose specific areas for budget cuts. He said that, if elected, he will institute a campaign to solicit private contributions to help pay for more police.

Staff writer Reginald Smith contributed to this story.