W. Hollywood Bond Debate Focuses on Campaign Brochure

Leaders on both sides swapped accusations this week in the debate over whether to approve a $7.6-million bond issue to build a new library and fire station in West Hollywood. The issue will be decided in Tuesday’s election.

Tom Larkin, a leading opponent of the proposal, questioned City Councilman Paul Koretz’s role in the circulation of a brochure endorsing the measure. Larkin called the brochure misleading and accused Koretz of a conflict of interest.

“I think it’s misleading when a Democratic slate mailer represents itself as supporting the bond issue when the West Hollywood Democratic Club has voted overwhelmingly to oppose it,” Larkin said.

Solicited Inclusion

He attacked Koretz, who designed the brochure sent to about 6,000 registered Democrats, by saying: “It doesn’t seem appropriate any time you have one council member giving money to another council member to promote the interest of one side on such a crucial issue.”

Larkin was referring to Councilman John Heilman, who is treasurer of a group supporting the measure. The group, called West Hollywood Citizens for Proposition A, solicited its inclusion in the mailer, which promoted candidates in races for the local school board and the Los Angeles County Community College District board.

Koretz dismissed the accusations as “absurd,” saying his only connection with the brochure was as a graphic designer. “That’s what I do for a living,” he said.

Koretz went on: “I obviously don’t believe there is a conflict promoting something I’m on record as supporting.” Of the five City Council members, only Councilman Steve Schulte is opposed to the bond issue.

Koretz said neither Heilman nor anyone else discussed financial arrangements involving the mailer with him. “I work as an independent contractor for a variety of people--including, in this case, a part-time political consultant who was the person putting out this mailing,” he said. “I wouldn’t have been the person to approach about money.”

Critic a Republican

Koretz said that to his knowledge the group had paid no money for inclusion in the brochure.

He said there was “absolutely nothing inappropriate about the brochure. . . . It doesn’t pretend to represent an official Democratic Party position with respect to the candidates it endorses or the bond issue. It’s a slate mailer pure and simple, of the variety that is very common.”

“It seems strange that a conservative Republican like Tom Larkin should be concerned that somehow the West Hollywood Democratic Club might be offended for any reason, especially when it involves a piece of mail he hasn’t even seen,” Koretz said.

Larkin, a Republican who finished sixth in a field of 10 candidates when he ran for the City Council in 1986, has been singled out recently by supporters of the bond issue, who have criticized opponents for using the issue to try to undermine the council’s pro-rent control majority.

Heilman called Larkin’s accusation about the mailer “crazy,” saying: “He knows there’s nothing wrong with a bond committee paying for a slate mailer to go out.”

Heilman, Mayor Helen Albert and Schulte have hinted that they may not seek reelection when their terms expire next year. Heilman and other supporters of the bond measure have accused landlords of using opposition to the measure as a springboard for a possible bid to take over the City Council.

He and other supporters point out that of the $4,500 raised by Fair Representation for West Hollywood--a group whose organizers include Larkin and Schulte--$1,500 came from the Greater Los Angeles Apartment Assn., a landlord group, and $2,500 from West Hollywood Concerned Citizens, many of whose members are landlords.

Meanwhile, opponents of the bond issue have criticized supporters for not disclosing the source of their funds.

“They’re obviously getting money from somewhere,” Larkin said. “We’d like to know from where.”

He and Schulte have been especially upset that supporters have sought to cast the bond issue, and the debate over the city’s long-awaited civic center, as a rent control issue.

Heilman, Albert and Councilwoman Abbe Land are on the steering committee of the Coalition for Economic Survival, an influential renters’ rights group that has endorsed the bond issue.

In an interview, Heilman declined to name any individuals or groups who have donated to West Hollywood Citizens for Proposition A, saying: “We will certainly disclose the list of our contributors as we are required to do under the law. . . . There’s nothing mysterious or secretive about it.”

If approved, the measure would increase property taxes by up to $33.47 per $100,000 of assessed valuation over the next 20 years. The money would be used to replace a single-engine fire station that officials say is seismically unsafe and quadruple the size of the county branch library that serves West Hollywood.

But if opponents have their way, the election will also serve as a referendum on the civic center.

Claiming that the bond issue represents a “down payment on the civic center,” they say the measure is a transparent attempt to get more money for the project. The library and fire station were originally included in plans for the civic center.

Angered by plans to use scarce park space to build what has derisively been referred to as a “Taj Mahal” and what Schulte has labeled “the B-1 Bomber of West Hollywood,” opponents argue that the city should dip into its $14-million reserve fund to pay for the fire station and library and let the voters decide whether the civic center should be built.

However, supporters of both the civic center and the bond measure say it is inappropriate to use the city’s reserves for county-owned facilities. They say the center, including a city hall, is desperately needed and that the $650,000 a year West Hollywood pays to rent City Hall space is wasted money.

Supporters insist that delaying construction of the center will only add to its cost. In addition, they point out that city officials have already budgeted $1.5 million for civic center planning this fiscal year, which ends June 30.

Besides the architects, a project engineer has been on the job for several months, and preliminary design work and site surveying continues.

Although Los Angeles County provides library and fire services to West Hollywood, county funds are not available to replace either the fire station or the library, officials have said.