Recalcitrant Council Puts Off Action on Bradley Ally

Complaints about dirty streets, untrimmed trees, potholes and sewage disposal sparked a City Council revolt against Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley on Wednesday, delaying approval of a new term for one of his longtime political advisers, Board of Public Works President Maureen Kindel.

The complaints and the unanimously approved week’s delay were further evidence of how the mayor was hurt by the June 2 city election defeats of his choices, Councilwoman Pat Russell and Homer Broome, a former member of the public works board.

The man who defeated Broome, Councilman Nate Holden, led the attack against Kindel and the board, which is in charge of garbage collection, street lighting, street maintenance, tree cutting, the out-of-date sewage system and other tasks that make the huge city run. For several years, Kindel has worked loyally for Bradley, raising funds for his political campaigns and advising him on how they should be run.

‘It Is Getting Dirtier’

“This has been a dirty city, and it is getting dirtier,” said Holden as Kindel, unsmiling but unruffled, listened at the City Council chamber witness table.

That was a big issue in Holden’s campaign against Broome in the 10th District, a southwestern Los Angeles area ranging from poor to middle- and upper-middle-class, extending generally from Western Avenue to the Pico-Robertson section of West Los Angeles.

Holden was joined in the attack by Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who has become a leading critic of the Bradley administration’s attempts to modernize the sewage system, saying the job should have been completed long ago. Yaroslavsky, who is planning to run against Bradley for mayor in 1989, repeated his criticism of the sewage disposal system Wednesday.

Yaroslavsky and Holden have called for abolition of the Board of Public Works, a full-time body appointed by the mayor. They have said they favor direct control of department operations by technically qualified department heads who would report to the mayor and council, rather than supervision by the board, which is composed of political appointees who usually have no training in the department’s complicated construction and maintenance work.

More council members defended Kindel than criticized her, however, and it appeared her new five-year term will be confirmed next week. But the debate showed how Bradley lost council influence in the election. For if Broome had won in the 10th District, he would not have unleashed such a tirade against the administration, and Russell, who had been council president, would have been able to use her parliamentary skill and clout to speed the confirmation motion through.

Holden, who had been an aide to Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, a legendary guardian of clean and smooth streets in his district, said that in Hahn’s district, served by county crews, “the (holes in the) streets are filled, the trees are trimmed.”

Flores Opposed Delay

Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, whose 15th District extends from South-Central Los Angeles to the harbor, defended Kindel, opposed the delay of her reconfirmation and suggested that Holden work with public works personnel rather than engage in a public confrontation with Kindel. “I would like to counsel Mr. Holden to work on that basis,” she said.

Holden, looking angry, glanced at her briefly, but mostly looked straight ahead, stone-faced, during her speech. He was scornful in his reply, saying sarcastically, “I should be counseled? All I had to do was drive through the 15th District.” That remark was an unusual attack by one council member on the way another member cared for her district.

Afterward, in an interview, Holden was specific about his complaints. Among them were potholes on Fairfax Avenue, between Pico and Venice boulevards, Arlington Avenue, La Brea Avenue and Jefferson Boulevard and untrimmed trees on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Kindel, who said she had toured Holden’s district recently, agreed the area needed maintenance work, particularly Fairfax Avenue and Jefferson Boulevard.