No sooner was Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown...

No sooner was Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. elected state chairman of the Democratic Party than his eight-year reign as governor was recalled a bit unkindly--by his father.

Pop, a two-term boss in the Statehouse himself, asserted Monday that when it came to financing government programs, his boy “was a cheapskate.”

Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, 83, was speaking at Cal State Northridge where the papers of former Congressman James C. Corman were opened to the public in the school’s Urban Archives Center.

“Unfortunately or fortunately, I have a son that some of you might recall,” Brown needled, adding that he couldn’t get his son “to put any money into anything in the state of California.”

As for his son’s successor, Brown said: “Deukmejian . . . was worse.”

Southern California gave the world Valley Girls, so perhaps it’s only natural that the phone-answering machine at the Granada Hills home of Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson features the following Valspeak:

” . . . Leave a message, you know, after that stupid annoying beep that, like, drives you crazy. Have a great day. I’ll talk to ya later. Bye-bye.”

The voice isn’t Bernson’s.

In imitation of several of its residents, Beverly Hills decided in November that it needed a face-lift in the business section. Or a dose of what the city likes to call “beauty enhancement.”

Beverly Hills shoppers, the city admitted, were being subjected to such indignities as cracked sidewalks, streets devoid of hanging plants and undecorated medians.

Alas, while an urban design program was unveiled last week, it could be June before any of the cement fissures are filled in, said Howard Rattner, the city’s economic development manager.

Here’s the worst part. Some visiting members of royalty have probably trod cracked sidewalks in Beverly Hills:

“We have them even in front of the Beverly Wilshire,” Rattner admitted.

An election campaign isn’t complete without a bizarre candidate-

designation story.

This year it involved Jack McGrath, a write-in opponent of incumbent Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky. McGrath announced that he was running as “Jack,” explaining that “single names are catchy” (as well as easier to scrawl on a ballot). But elections officials said no.

Such an arrangement wouldn’t have been unprecedented. A write-in Assembly candidate in Los Angeles was allowed to run as Debbie L. in 1980. However, she could almost argue that her last name--Larbalestrier--wouldn’t fit on the ballot. She lost.

That same year in Huntington Beach, City Council candidate Jack Kelly asked to have himself listed as “businessman/actor (Maverick),” in sly recognition of the fact that he once co-starred in the cowboy television series of that name. An opponent, John Valentino, then threatened to list himself as John (Rudolph) Valentino.

Maverick made the ballot; Rudolph didn’t. Kelly was elected.