Credibility Proves to Be Tricky Issue for Organizer
With his sleeves rolled up and red “power” tie slightly loosened, Steve Sulkes easily fits the image of a corporate strategist.
But Sulkes did not go to a community center in eastern Ventura County recently to advance the fortunes of American business.
Instead, Sulkes, a political organizer for an anti-nuclear group, came to persuade residents to join a coalition of environmental and homeowner groups trying to prevent the renewal of Rockwell International’s federal license to work with radioactive materials at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory west of Chatsworth and southeast of Simi Valley.
Sulkes said he intentionally wears business attire--such as the dark blue, pin-striped suit, white shirt and red tie he wore to the meeting--to most meetings.
‘Speak People’s Language’
“It’s camouflage,” said Sulkes, a boyish-looking 33-year-old with thinning brown hair and a direct gaze that rarely wavers. “I used to wear jeans and T-shirts, but I learned a long time ago you’ve got to speak people’s language.”
It is precisely this chameleon-like ability to adapt to a variety of situations, coupled with his calm demeanor and apparent sincerity, that accounts for Sulkes’ effectiveness as a political organizer, his colleagues say.
Indeed, by the end of his meeting with the Susana Knolls Homeowners Assn., the group’s most skeptical member initiated what turned out to be a unanimous vote to join Sulkes’ coalition, said Barbara Johnson, the group’s president.
“His strongest asset is he can move easily from world to world, whether it’s homeowners, executives or people in show business you want to do a benefit concert,” said Paul L. Tepper, an attorney who worked with Sulkes in the early 1980s when both were active in the anti-nuclear group Alliance for Survival.
“I feel very passionately about this issue, but I don’t like to falsely alarm people or get carried away and alienate them,” said Sulkes, who lives in Burbank. “All it takes is one statement you can’t back up to lose all credibility.”
Resigned City Post
Yet Sulkes doesn’t always practice what he preaches. Asked why he resigned in February from his job as an administrative assistant to Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn, Sulkes initially said: “It was time to move on.” He said he wanted to go back to free-lancing as a political organizer.
But Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office, said Sulkes was asked to resign. The position, which Sulkes held for two years, pays about $38,000 annually and involves clerical duties and dealing with citizen complaints, Qualls said. He would not elaborate on why Sulkes was asked to leave, saying it was a personnel matter.
Contacted a second time about why he left the position, Sulkes said his job performance was suffering because he was not happy with the work and his supervisors asked him to leave.
“It was a mutual decision,” Sulkes said. “The motivation just wasn’t there, and I probably missed more days than I should have. I just wasn’t putting my full energy and abilities into the job, and it was apparent.”
But The Times later learned that Sulkes left the position under suspicion of stealing $1,000 from Hahn’s 1989 reelection fund. Sulkes was charged in a felony complaint filed in February with one count of grand theft and two counts of forgery. He pleaded no contest June 20 to the grand theft charge, and the other charges were dropped. He was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to serve 150 hours of community service. He was also ordered to repay the money.
‘Sense of Denial’
Confronted with the information, Sulkes said: “It was a period of time when I was under a lot of pressure. . . . It’s not the proudest moment of my life.” However, Sulkes said he did not pocket the money, but put it in the wrong bank account and tried to cover it up.
“I have a real sense of denial about this because I don’t think I committed a crime,” he said.
Sulkes, who has lived in the East San Fernando Valley since his family moved from Chicago when he was 12, said he always has believed that “one person can make a difference.” He said he at first planned to become a physician like his father. He said he spent his summers during junior high and high school volunteering as a tutor for children in Watts.
It was as a premedical student at UCLA that Sulkes said his life changed course. His mother became ill and eventually died of cancer, and his father had a heart attack. Sulkes dropped out of school and did volunteer work at public radio station KPFK, producing documentaries on racism and other issues, he said.
Then came the late 1970s, when activists statewide were organizing efforts against nuclear power plants, such as Diablo Canyon and San Onofre. In his spare time, Sulkes said, he closeted himself in libraries and learned about nuclear power. He said he emerged convinced that the public’s safety was being threatened by the nuclear industry.
Anti-Nuclear Activism
His involvement with Rockwell dates to the early 1980s when he was a volunteer with Alliance for Survival. With Sulkes at the helm, the group twice challenged Rockwell--first on its fitness to store large quantities of radioactive materials at its Canoga Park sites, then on the environmental impact of testing engines for the MX missile system.
The company subsequently reduced its inventory of uranium and other materials and held public hearings on the engine testing, but denied that Sulkes and his group were directly responsible.
Rockwell spokesman Pat Coulter said he remembers dealing with Sulkes. “He’s the kind of guy you can’t help liking even though he costs you no end of heartburn and money.”
Last month, Sulkes telephoned the company and maintained that he was legally entitled to attend a meeting of regulatory officials at Santa Susana, Coulter said.
The firm ended up barring him from the meeting, but only after attorneys spent several “expensive hours” on a Saturday researching the question, Coulter said.
Wanted to Try
“To be honest, I didn’t really think it would work,” said Sulkes, dropping his customary reserve and chuckling at Coulter’s comments. “But it was worth a try.”
The firm held the meeting at the lab in June to allay concerns about a U.S. Department of Energy report on low-level chemical and radioactive contamination at the site. Rockwell operated 16 nuclear reactors for the Energy Department on a 290-acre portion of the 2,668-acre lab between 1947 and 1986.
Last month, the Los Angeles chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility hired Sulkes to run a campaign to get the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to hold hearings before ruling on the 10-year renewal of Rockwell’s license to operate the nuclear fuel-recycling facility. NRC officials have not decided whether to hold such hearings, which are discretionary under federal regulations.
Rockwell officials said no nuclear work is being done at the lab, which was used from the early 1960s until 1986 to remove plutonium and other materials from nuclear fuel rods and package them for future use. However, they said the firm’s Rocketdyne division is seeking contracts for the work.
Safety Record Defended
“Rocketdyne has and will continue to operate all business activities at Santa Susana Field Laboratory in a safe and responsible manner,” Coulter said. “All reports, tests and surveys by the government and private groups have supported that fact.”
But the Los Angeles chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, which has a membership of about 2,300 doctors, dentists and other health professionals, is concerned about the risk of conducting nuclear activities near populated areas and about Rockwell’s record at a nuclear weapons plant near Denver, said Dr. Richard Saxon, a board member and orthopedic surgeon in Encino. He said the group paid Sulkes $3,000 because of his reputation as an effective organizer.
In addition to working for Hahn, Sulkes was a paid consultant in Mayor Tom Bradley’s 1985 reelection campaign and in his unsuccessful campaign for governor.
David Townsend, a Sacramento political consultant, gave Sulkes his first job as a paid organizer in 1984 after observing him as a volunteer with Gary Hart’s state primary campaign. He called Sulkes a bright young talent with the ability to recognize when to compromise.
When Sulkes began working with Townsend, he carried a briefcase with a “NO NUKES” sticker plastered on it, Townsend said. One day, Sulkes and Townsend were on their way to a conference with Lockheed officials, who supported a campaign that the two men were working on to raise the sales tax in Santa Clara County, Townsend said.
“I said, ‘I think you’d better leave that briefcase in the car,’ and he did,” Townsend said. “There’s a difference between a leader and a screamer, and he’s a leader.”
