Ex-Bradley Aide to Seek Yaroslavsky’s Council Seat

Citing overwhelming Westside voter disapproval of a coastal oil drilling project two weeks ago, a former mayoral aide said Tuesday that he wants to continue fighting Occidental Petroleum Corp. by running for the Los Angeles City Council seat now held by Zev Yaroslavsky.

Steve Saltzman, 39, said he supports many of the same environmental and slow-growth issues that in recent years have been pushed by Yaroslavsky and are of increasing concern on the Westside. Like unannounced mayoral candidate Yaroslavsky, Saltzman said he will strongly oppose any Occidental effort to resurrect the drilling project killed Nov. 8 by the narrow passage of Proposition O.

In addition to Saltzman, several others expected to enter the 5th District race are on record against the former Pacific Palisades drilling project and support slow-growth measures.

Voters in Yaroslavsky’s district rejected Occidental’s pro-drilling initiative--Proposition P--by an almost 3-1 margin and supported Proposition O, which Yaroslavsky co-sponsored, by nearly 2 to 1. The 5th District’s heavy support for the anti-drilling measure strongly contrasted with its defeat in seven other council districts and narrow victory in several others.

“The very decisive (Westside) vote against the coastal oil drilling proposal is of particular importance because my longstanding opposition to Occidental Petroleum’s scheme is a cornerstone of my candidacy,” Saltzman said during a news conference on the steps of City Hall. “I will have only one priority as it pertains to Occidental Petroleum. I will oppose them.”

Since the bitter campaign between the two drilling measures, Occidental has not disclosed its intentions in the Palisades.

Saltzman said he expects Yaroslavsky to relinquish his 13-year hold on the 5th Council District seat in order to run against Mayor Tom Bradley and to remain neutral in the race to succeed him on the council. Yaroslavsky said Tuesday that he has no plans to endorse anyone, but he did not rule out the possibility. He added that he has not decided when he will formally announce that he will run for mayor.

Saltzman has been lining up support for a possible council bid for more than a year and has raised about $150,000. In 1982, Saltzman finished a close second in a bitter 1982 Democratic primary race against Tom Hayden for a Santa Monica-area Assembly seat. He served from 1978 to 1981 as Bradley’s Westside deputy and is one of Bradley’s appointees on the city’s energy commission.

A businessman involved in property management, Saltzman is supported by his one-time boss, former U.S. Sen. John V. Tunney, and by Ed Sanders, former president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.

Probable Opponents

Among others, Saltzman will probably be opposed by attorney Lisa Specht, 43, who is heavily backed by the Westside political organization headed by Democratic Reps. Henry Waxman and Howard Berman and who is the probable front-runner.

Last April, Specht moved across district lines into a Century City-area condominium so she could run for Yaroslavsky’s seat. In 1985, she finished a respectable second in a five-candidate race for Los Angeles city attorney and is expected to call on many who backed her in that race for support in a council bid.

Others known to either be interested in the Westside council seat or actively pursuing it are slow-growth activist Laura Lake of Not Yet New York and urban planner Ryan Snyder, who is attempting a low-budget, grass-roots campaign to generate name identification in the sprawling district.

Although Specht has yet to formally announce for the seat, Saltzman attacked her Tuesday as the “establishment, status quo candidate of special interests” who once worked for the politically well-connected Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Phillips law firm. The firm represents Occidental Petroleum; one of its partners, Mickey Kantor, was the chief spokesman and an architect of Proposition P and a political adviser to Specht in her city attorney’s campaign.

Specht said Tuesday that she left the law firm last June and has consistently opposed Occidental’s drilling project. Campaign records show that she contributed at least $800 to the anti-drilling measure, Proposition O.